Digimon Tamers: New Era
by CallsignRook
Summary: Takato, Rika and Henry head to Hawaii for the annual Digicon, unaware of the events that are about to be set into motion. This takes place several years after the Locomon incident. Read and Review please!
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first fan fiction, I got bored one day and I decided to be creative. So I don't own anything digimon related, and all that stuff. Enjoy the story tho!**

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The young man staggered through the door, exhaustion etched on his features. He dropped the bag he was carrying and staggered over to one of the two neatly made beds, collapsing face first with a groan. A red, dinosaur looking creature bounded into the room, nose twitching as his yellow eyes scanned the hotel room. "Takato-mon! This place smells funny…"

The tousle haired boy raised his head, hooded crimson eyes looking over his digimon. "What do you mean boy?" He muttered sleepily.

"It smells like the ocean and summer… and your mom and dad when they get really silly." The digimon scratched his cream colored stomach idly with one claw.

The teen, Takato, chuckled at his digimon. "Whatever you say Guilmon…" with that he plopped his face back down onto the bed, his body seeming to deflate. "Why don't you go see what Renamon is doing…" Came a muffled suggestion from the digimon tamer.

At this Guilmon's ears perked up, a reptilian smile spreading over his face. "Okay!" And with that the dinosaur digimon bounded out of the room and down the hall.

After a good while the young digimon tamer on the bed rolled over, flopping his arms out pathetically. He lay in a relatively simple hotel room. It had two beds in it, a bathroom next to the door. A large TV sat across from the beds, and a large door in the opposite wall from the entrance led out to a balcony. It was nighttime yet warm, humid air still drifted in. The sound of rolling waves gently came in through the open door, soft voices drifting up from the beach below.

Takato jolted upright as a girl stalked into his room, throwing herself down on the bed next to him. She had radiant, orange hair pulled up in a short ponytail. Her light blue eyes shone with the same exhaustion that was in Takato's. She kicked off her boots with a sigh, stretching out and laying down next to the young tamer. "Hey gogglehead, where's your lizard at?"

"I told him to go find Renamon to play with… I'm too tired to deal with his boundless energy right now…"

Rika, the female tamer, chuckled at this. "I'm sure she'll enjoy that, he always seems to bring out the less self-conscious side of her anyways."

"Yeah she actually plays with him. I never expected that in a million years… she's about as uptight as you are sometimes…" Takato flinched as Rika raised her fists, rage coming over her features, "In a good way! A good way!"

Rika lowered her fasts, a slight grin instead touching her lips. "So you ready for tomorrow?"

The young tamer shrugged, "I suppose… I'm not a fan of this whole being famous thing. I would have gone to digicon anyways but this is just crazy!"

"Tell me about it, I can never get a second to myself. I do like the fact that the event is in Hawaii, with my mom not here I can actually have some fun. Maybe wear a two piece for once…" The Digimon Queen looked up towards the ceiling, missing Takato's blush.

"Sure?" Rika grinned, looking down at the young man.

"You're such a gogglehead… and I am incredibly tired. Get to bed, it's like two. I'm going to go pass out." Rika grabbed her boots and stood up, "Night Takato. If I see lizard-boy I'll tell him to come in quietly."

"M'kay night Rika…" The Ice Queen had made her way back down the hall before Takato sat bolt upright again, "Did she just call me Takato?"

Guilmon lay curled up on one bed, Takato tucked into the covers of the other. Both boys twitched as the interacted with their dreams. The young digimon tamer dreamt the same recurring dream, in all of its startling reality.

Helicopter blades thrummed as he flew over the barren African landscape. Red dust coated everything, from his ACU's to the M416 that sat on his lap. To his right a young man looked over a map with the Renamon next to him. He wore ACU's as well, with dark sunglasses and a worn combat helmet. His patches simply said 'Rook', just as they did in every dream.

The Renamon wore camouflage as well, and wielded the same weapon as Rook and Takato. Her dark eyes scanned the map with intensity, large claws jabbing at different points. Takato's instincts told him that this digimon was partnered with Rook, the way that they interacted and just the way that they… existed.

Guilmon sat across from Takato, the digimon excitedly looking at the ground flowing by underneath. Six more soldiers sat in the helicopter, all armed to the teeth and silent.

Suddenly they were on the ground, inside a ruined house. Bullets buzzed and whipped by as Takato scrunched himself into a corner, a familiar feeling of fear overtaking him. Rook slid into the dirt next to him, popping off a couple rounds before turning his attention to the tamer. Rook whipped out several large white bandages, and hurriedly began wrapping them around Takato's leg.

It took the young tamer a second before he realized that blood was spraying from a hole in his right calf. Fear flooded his every thought. His heart beat faster and faster as Rook handed Takato his rifle, patted him on the chest, and disappeared.

Takato woke with a start. The covers were thrown off the bed, and the teen was covered in sweat. "You alright Takato-mon?" A sleepy Guilmon asked from the other bed, one yellow eye lazily held open, "You were yelling again…"

"Yeah I'm alright… I just had that dream again. Go back to sleep." Takato yawned, and pulled the covers back over himself.

"Okay… but… I'm hungry… and tired…" Takato couldn't help but smile at his digimon as the tamer drifted off back to sleep himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**This is my first fan fiction, I got bored one day and I decided to be creative. So I don't own anything digimon related, and all that stuff. Enjoy the story tho!**

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Takato woke with a start as he suddenly was thrown three feet into the air. The teen made contact with his bed as he came down before being launched upwards again, his covers falling through the air. "Takato Takato Takato! It's time to go eeeatttttt!!!"

The young tamer flew off his bed and landed with a thump on the floor. Looking back to his bed he saw Guilmon and a small, rabbit like digimon named Terriermon standing there, giggling hysterically. A young man leaned against the far wall. He had blue hair and grey eyes, and was clad in an orange vest. He had a wide smile plastered on his face, and the boy broke into laughter as Takato released an enormous sigh.

"Well good morning Henry." Takato said from his position on the floor to the blue-haired tamer. The crimson eyed tamer was unable to contain himself as he burst into uncontrollable laughter. Henry joined in, followed by Terriermon and Guilmon. The four of them roared with laughter, rolling around the hotel room.

"Alright get moving. We're eating breakfast downstairs in twenty." Henry managed to say through the laughter. He picked up his Terriermon, who scurried up his arm to sit on top of his head.

"And don't be late! Even though you will be anyways…" The rabbit digimon scolded as he went back out into the hall with his tamer.

Takato stripped off his boxers and ran into the shower. He rammed a toothbrush into his mouth as he attempted to wash his hair, while Guilmon managed to get into a fight with the sheets Takato had thrown everywhere.

After both boy and digimon were properly cleaned and clothed, they dashed downstairs. Takato and Guilmon clattered through the enormous lobby and made their way over to the spacious, open air dining room. "Mmmm… a buffet… can I have two plates? Can I takato-mon? Can I?" Guilmon practically bounced around his tamer before the young man eventually nodded his head.

The starved dinosaur bolted off towards the food, Takato close behind. They piled their plates high with breakfast and found the table Henry and Terriermon had already occupied.

"Got enough food there Lardmon?" Giggled the long-eared rabbit digimon, drawing a glare from his tamer.

"Probably not… but that's why it's a buffet!" Guilmon responded, oblivious as usual.

"Well hey it was really nice of Digicon to set us up with this awesome hotel." Henry chimed in, sipping from a cup of coffee.

"I knowfff right?" Takato mumbled back around a mouthful of bacon and eggs, "all this great American food!"

The blue haired tamer rolled his eyes, a slight smile still touching at his lips.

"And yet again Rika reminds me why I love yoga pants…" Takato said as he looked over again to the buffet.

Henry raised an eyebrow. "What? She would never… ohh…"

Indeed Rika was wearing yoga pants. Incredibly tight fitting yoga pants. She had grown into a full blown teenager since their original adventures, and the gracious curves she had developed showed it. From her toned waist to the supple curves of her waist and butt, all the way back up her body to the generous curves of her breasts.

"Takato-mon?" Guilmon chirped, ears flicking as he watched his tamer stare.

"Subtle." A soft, feminine voice said from behind them. The boys collectively jumped as Renamon pulled up a chair and sat down.

"Wha?" Takato managed to make some sort of response before Rika joined them, raising an eyebrow at her digimon.

"Hello boys." She calmly said, digging in to her eggs with gusto.

"Morning Rika." Said Guilmon and Terriermon, the two tamers still a bit dumbstruck.

"So I don't know if you guys have thought about this but we have to do our entire press conference in English." Rika said, causing Henry to slap his forehead.

"Ahhh damn I totally forgot about that! How is everyone's English?" the blue haired boy asked.

"I am perfectly capable of speaking English, and I know that Guilmon and Terriermon will have no problem adapting." Renamon stated, nibbling gently on an apple.

"Why do you say that?" Asked Takato.

"We digimon seem to be able to adapt incredibly easily. One night a film I was watching was in German, and after only a couple minutes I was able to understand it completely."

"What she means by that is she couldn't figure out how to work the remote and managed to change the language to German." Smirked Rika, Renamon's tail shooting straight upright in a form of a digimon blush.

"Well… that's not important. The point is that we digimon will have no problem with English." Said a very flustered Renamon, drawing giggle from Rika.

"Well I know my English is just fine and if Henry can't speak perfect English I'll actually wear that sundress my mom forced me to pack. How is yours goggle-head?"

Takato scratched the back of his head a bit. "Just give me some time and I can do it. I'm a bit rusty but I can do it."

"Alright just don't mess up lizard boy, you're supposed to be our fearless leader." Rika said, taking a sip from her tea.

The three tamers and their digimon finished up their breakfast and went back up to their rooms to prepare for their appearance at Digicon. Every year since the start of the show back in Japan a massive digimon festival took place. It was traditionally in Japan but as the digimon movement gained momentum the location of Digicon began to jump around between the US and Japan. Once Takato, Henry and Rika stepped into the spotlight and saved the world from the D-Reaper with their own, real digimon, other digimon started emerging from the net and partnering themselves with other kids. This turned the original tamers into enormous celebrities. So while the world was getting used to digimon as a part of everyday life, Digicon had turned into a place where tamers, digimon looking for tamers and digimon enthusiasts could get together.

Takato sat alone in his room, buttoning up a black collared shirt and silently practicing his English. Guilmon had gone off to play with Terriermon. The leader of the digimon tamers idly pulled on a pair of khaki shorts, and made sure to position his goggles perfectly on his head.

"You're incredibly bad at hiding your ogling." Takato jumped so high he almost hit the ceiling.

Rika stood at his doorway, still wearing her white t-shirt and black yoga pants. She walked in and closed the door behind her. "Ahhh… sorry about that… your gunna hit me now aren't you…" Takato backed away from the female tamer, arms thrown up to hide his face.

"No actually. I'm kind of flattered that you and Henry find me attractive." Rika responded, pushing Takato up against the wall, her face inches from his.

"You… you are? What?" Takato could see every detail of her face; he could smell her soft perfume. Her eyes were no longer hard, instead they had a questioning look in them. Her soft lips were gently parted, as if in a whisper.

This did not help Takato's situation at all. He had slowly been falling for Rika since her birthday party several years ago, and now that they were eighteen he knew that he was head over heels for the punky tamer. So having Rika's face inches from his with his back against the wall was doing nothing to help Takato's slowly eroding willpower.

"I don't get you Takato." Rika muttered softly. "You're so hard to read sometimes… what do you want?"

"Well… for once I know what I want but… well… I don't." Takato's shoulders slumped, and he sighed a bit.

"You're quite possibly the most powerful tamer in the world, your digimon loves you, you're going to university next year, and you've got great friends. What's wrong?" Rika asked.

"I don't know… I feel like I just need… someone." Takato was very taken aback by Rika's questioning. He knew she cared about his general welfare but since when did she actually want to know anything about Takato's personal life?

"Like Juri?" Rika said in a whisper. The crimson eyed boy could almost hear a tinge of jealousy in her voice.

"No… That was a long time ago. She's just weird now… she's totally ostracized herself from everyone. I… I… it doesn't matter." Takato muttered back.

"Well you know what Takato? It matters to me. I finally managed to get you away from everyone for once, so spill."

Takato mouthed out words before clamping his jaw shut. His stomach flipped over again and again as Rika's face seemed to move closer and closer to his. Electricity seemed to fill the air as Takato timidly wrapped his hands around Rika's waist, pulling her in closer. She did not resist, and instead returned the embrace.

"Well Rika…" Their noses touched, and Rika seemed to be entranced. Soft skin contacted Takato's as he rubbed his cheek against Rika's, his heart pounding in his chest, "I've always wanted you. You're my angel…"

"And you're my goofy knight in shining armor." Rika said into Takato's ear. "And this is the part where the knight kisses the angel…"

Takato's eyes slid shut as Rika's soft lips embraced his. She tasted amazing… her lips were caressing his… he felt her lithe body press up against his as he ran a hand through her hair, kissing his angel harder and harder.

Takato couldn't believe it. Rika was kissing him. The girl of his dreams. The girl he had yearned after so long. Takato brushed his tongue over Rika's lips, and she did the same. Their tongues and lips touched, driving the young boy wild.

Rika broke apart from Takato, leaving the young tamers gasping. "Damn boy." Giggled Rika, "I might have to let you kiss me more often."

"I can live with that." Takato said, grinning goofily.

"Now if you tell anyone what just happened I'll kick your butt. That being said, I am completely flattered by the fact that you chose me to be your angel." Rika blushed a bit after saying this, "And I want you to be my knight…"

"I'm yours." Takato whispered to the orange-haired digimon tamer, and the two sunk into a kiss again.

Takato broke from Rika's lips, and the girl hugged him tightly, nuzzling his chest. "Now go get ready, we have that press conference here in a bit."

"Alright…." Rika kissed him once more, deeply. "I may or may not be spending the night with you. So tell Guilmon whats up."

Takato only managed to nod, and he watched Rika walk off to her room, swaying her hips. Guilmon bounded through the open door, nose twitching as he sniffed the air. His face lit up, and he managed to produce some sort of saurian smile. "It smells like Rika and Takato… Have you been being good?" Guilmon winked at his tamer with one of his large yellow eyes.

"That depends boy…" Takato winked back, "Define good."

Guilmon jumped up on the bed, and watched his tamer readjust himself. "Well good is not kissing anyone. And bad is screwing the living data out of Renamon, which is what I've been doing."

Takato sprayed the water he had been drinking all over the room, his face turning bright red as he coughed hysterically. "you… you… what?"

"You've been kissing Rika and I've been fucking Renamon. It's simple Takato-mon." Chuckled the digimon, his tail wagging. "I didn't really go play with Terriermon."

"Good lord boy, when did this start happening?" Takato motioned for Guilmon to follow him, and the two walked out of the room and towards the elevator.

"Ahhhmmm…. Two years ago? I took her out to the park one time for a date and ever since then we've been together."

"And Rika doesn't know about this?" Takato asked as he hit the elevator button that would take them to the lobby.

"Renamon said it would be bad to tell, so we've been quiet about it. But since Rika has been all over you I think it's okay if you know."

Takato couldn't push back that smile that creeped onto his face. "Well you've grown up haven't you boy?"

"We all have Takato-mon!" Giggled the dinosaur digimon. "But that just means we have to deal with grown up problems…"


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm going to get into Rika and Takato's past, and how he falls in love with Rika. Things are going to get a lot more exciting. Things are going to get rolling here pretty soon, so heads up! I don't own digimon, even though I wish I did!**

Takato mused silently to himself as he disembarked from the elevator and walked over to sit in the lobby. A light humid wind caressed the young man, sun shining through the gently waving palm fronds that shaded the open-air parts of the lobby. _I can't believe it… I've finally got Rika…_

_---Flashback---_

_It had been a year since the Locomon incident, and Rika had decided to let Takato spend more time with her. The young boy couldn't figure out why the harsh, punky tamer had invited him to the park, but he didn't really care. It was Rika. Whenever he looked at her his heart seemed to melt a little. And while he berated himself for this, Takato couldn't help but throw on a giant goofy smile every time the Digimon Queen even looked at him._

_Upon seeing Renamon standing next to Rika, Guilmon darted from Takato's side and chased the kitsune as she bounded off into the treetops. The saurian digimon giggled as he disappeared into the foiliage, leaving the two tamers alone._

"_H..h…hey Rika, whats up?" Takato hesitantly sat down next to Rika, the young girl staring off into space. _

_She did not respond for a while, and Takato feared that she could hear his heart pounding out of his chest, or see the feelings that he was actively trying to suppress._

"_I've never told anyone about him before." Came a whisper from the purple-eyed girl, "you're the first…"_

_A week ago Rika had come into the Matsuki bakery when Takato was working alone. She jumped over the desk, grabbed him by his apron and dragged the boy to the back. They stood there awkwardly for a second before Takato saw the tears brimming in Rika's eyes. Despite an intense fear of bodily harm Takato wrapped his arms around the girl, who began to sob. She gaspingly told him about her father, and all of the thoughts she had that were attached to him. They talked for hours before Rika's tears dried. They drew apart and before Takato could say a word Rika planted a kiss on his cheek and left._

_This was the first time Rika had talked to him since then, despite the fact that over the past year they had been spending more and more time together._

"_Well… I'm glad you told me Rika. I mean I care about you a lot and stuff…" A burst of redness took over Takato's face. He had not just said that!_

_A slight smile touched at Rika's mouth. "I'm coming to realize that goggle-head… you're such a dork."_

_Takato couldn't help the wide grin that spread across his face. "Well… are you feeling better?"_

"_Yeah… thanks."_

_The two sat in silence for a while. This was perfect in the mind of Takato. She wasn't yelling at him or hitting him… Instead Rika was actually opening up to someone._

"_What do you want Takato?" Rika's sudden question startled the young tamer._

"_Wha?"_

"_Takato ever since I met you everything you've done has been to help or save someone else. You place everyone before yourself and you take to weight of the world on your shoulders like a moron. What do you want?" Rika leaned back and looked over at Takato._

_Takato was speechless. Why does falling in love have to screw with you so much?_

_----End Flasback----_

Takato smiled at Henry and Terriermon as they walked over to where the young tamer and Guilmon were sitting.

"You ready for this?" Henry asked, taking a seat on the couch next to Takato.

The crimson-eyed tamer shrugged, "Sure. I honestly have no idea what to do… Are you ready?"

Henry nodded in affirmation. "I'm not cut out for this celebrity stuff though… I just want to enjoy digicon and not be harassed for my autograph all the time."

"Tell me about it…" Takato sighed. "We already spend too much time dodging the papparatzi as it is."

"It's only a matter of time before someone gets killed by a wild one trying to take our picture." Henry said, frowning.

"Serves them right!" Terriermon chimed in from his perch atop his tamers head.

"There are those that deserve death and receive life, and there are those who deserve life and receive death. Who are we to decide?" Guilmon said, cocking his head at the rabbit digimon.

The rest of the group simply stared at the saurian digimon in amazement. "You are just in a habit of amazing me today boy." Takato said, shaking his head a bit.

Rika and Renamon appeared and started to walk over to where the boys were sitting. The digimon queen caught Takato's eye, and the young man shot a small, goofy grin at the girl. She rolled her eyes at Takato, but smiled back nonetheless.

A man came in behind Rika, wearing an official looking lanyard around his neck. "Hey guys, Yuske Aramaki. I'm going to be in charge of your press conference."

He shook hands with all of the tamers and, surprisingly, their digimon as well. "Alright I've got nametags and passes here for all of you…" He pulled lanyards out of his bag "and if you would follow me we'll get things underway."

Without further ado the skinny Japanese man scooted off, the Tamers bolting out of their seats to keep up. "Aramaki-san, how long will this conference take?" Henry asked, finally catching up with the man.

"Around an hour, and then your free to go. I imagine this isn't your idea of fun so I cut down the time your open to the press." The old man chirped in response.

"Oh… well thank you." Stuttered Henry, expressions of bemused shock on Rika and Henry's face, relief etched on Takato's features.

"Yeah yeah… just get ready for hell." With that the group turned a corner and began to drift through groups of people and booths. Digimon and humans wandered around the event, taking pictures and browsing over merchandise. The trio was at Digicon, and this time they were the celebrities.

As the tamers weaved their way through the crowd people started to murmur, casting glances in their direction. "So what do you think boy?" asked Takato of his digimon.

"Everyone's looking at us… I don't know if I like this…" Guilmon dodged around an enormous Leomon, the saurian struggling to keep up with the group.

"I have to agree, I've never felt so self conscious in my life…" Renamon muttered aloud, looking around at the crowds.

The group arrived at the press booth in short order, and took their seats before a number of reporters. Takato felt his heart beat faster and faster, nervousness beginning to take over his brain. He hadn't read the press packet Digicon had sent him, but the young tamer now wished that he had.

His one solace was that Rika sat down next to him, and without saying a word, softly kicked his leg. He cocked an eye in her direction. "What was that for??" he hissed.

"To keep you on your toes of course. Don't screw this up." The orange-haired girl said matter-of-factly. Yet Takato could see a sparkle in her purple eyes, one that if you didn't know the punky teen like he did, you would never see.

Aramaki stepped out in front of the gathered reporters, and raised his arms to indicate he wanted silence. "Alright you all know the drill. Direct you questions; you've got one hour."

With that the man turned around and gazed up at the tamers. "Alright you guys ready?"

Tentatively the teens nodded, and with a quick grin Aramaki walked off, leaving the floor open. Immediately a dozen hands shot up, and cameras began to flash.

"Second row, third from the right." Came Aramaki's voice from the corner.

"Ms. Nonaka" Rika's head perked up, her eyes narrowing "due to your obligations as a tamer, you haven't been able to model recently. How do you feel about that?"

"I couldn't care less." Rika said nonchalantly in perfect english, each one of the tamers and digimon snorting collectively.

This broke the ice, and the questions flowed. Maybe this won't be too bad… Takato though, popping open his water bottle.


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright time to introduce some new characters! For all your haters don't worry, the story is still about the tamers! These guys are big part of the plot, so I hope you'll grow to tolerate them. Also I apologize for the car references… Thanks for the reviews though, they're incredibly motivating!**

As the original digimon tamers entertained the press, hundreds of people wandered the plaza that was playing host to Digicon. Vendor booths filled the tiled square, a huge stage occupying a portion that jutted out into the sea. Music pounded out from speakers, a live DJ working his trade. Palm trees soared about the event-goers, lazily swaying about in the gentle tropical breeze.

Two young men wandered the event, both of them very American and not much older than 18. It was obvious from the way that they carried themselves, the way that they talked, and the way that they dressed. Both of the boys were constantly smiling and laughing, and wore khaki shorts with brightly colored shirts. Calmly they examined each booth they walked by, eyeing any cute girls that happened to pass near them.

One of the teens has curly blond hair held down by a white flat bill hat with a red W on it. He wore dark sunglasses, and had a camera draped around his neck. He was well muscled, his slight tan magnified by a teal t-shirt. He chatted away with the other boy he was with, the pair appearing to be close friends.

The other young man had black hair that was spiked up in a sort of fo-hawk, and he wore dark sunglasses as well. He was muscled like his friend, but not as tan. The boy wore a hiking backpack with a racing steering wheel tucked in the back, giving hints to the personalities of the boys.

"Dude do you think it was a good idea to leave the car alone at the show?" Asked the black-haired boy.

"It'll be fine Jeff… It kind of has our names on it, and it's not like anyone would just straight up steal a show car. It's kind of noticeable." The curly-haired boy sighed, snapping a picture of an Agumon that was riding around on her tamer's shoulders.

"Well people could draw on it Luke!" Snapped Jeff, a playful frown on his face.

"You would like a penis on the car anyways… and ever since Aloha Kings the Rex has been popular, so don't worry about it." Luke chuckled as the pair wandered around, going closer to the stage.

"You know what Luke? Fuck you. Just fuck you. I will worry about it." Jeff burst into laughter just as Luke did, the pair unable to stop smiling.

"Stop being a little bitch…" The young man snickered.

The sun sank lower and lower in the sky, bathing digimon, their tamers and digimon enthusiasts in golden light. The two boys made their way over to the car show paddock as digicon winded down. Luke walked around behind Jeff and snatched the steering wheel from his pack, drawing protest from the teen. "Hey!"

"I bought you all those cards today. Deal." Luke said, waving the Sparco wheel at his friend.

Jeff sighed in defeat, and followed Luke over to their car. It was a crimson 07' Subaru WRX STi shod in matte white Enkei RPF-1's. The car was lowered to the point where it would scrape if not driven carefully, and sported a full ings+1 body kit. Luke jumped in the driver's seat, and waited for Jeff to take the seat next to him before he started the car. The engine jumped to life with a growl, and the Subaru lumbered off, making its way through the crowds of the people leaving the convention.

The boys quickly joined up onto the highway, and Luke dropped a gear without warning. "Luke! What the heck??" Jeff yelled as Luke pushed on the throttle, pushing the teens back into their seats.

The exhaust roared as Luke flew up through the RPM range, turbo screaming as a grin spread across the young man's face.

"Come on you know you like it…" Luke grinned, eyes actively scanning the road ahead of him.

"Only when I'm driving, I'm at least good at it!" Jeff snapped in return.

"Your better at driving? Excuse me? May I remind you as to who won Redline for our team?"

"Well… that was one time. So yeah!" The black haired boy took off his sunglasses as he smiled at his own retort, revealing brilliant green eyes.

"You tool." Luke said, downshifting as he got off of the highway and turned onto a residential street.

The boys jokingly fought for the rest of the ride. Eventually Luke pulled the crimson STi into the driveway of a single story beach house. It was a simple structure, the wood finished but bare. The boys grabbed their bags out of the car and headed inside, leaving the car in the driveway. The inside of the beach house was as simple as the outside, it had everything the two boys could possibly want in order to entertain themselves: a tv, xbox and surfboards. That and a large kitchen were the main part of the house, and to the right off the entrance there was a hallway that led to the bedrooms.

"Nice of your parents to lend this to us for digicon mate." Luke said as he tossed his bag onto the enormous couch and flipped the tv on to CNN.

"I know right? Gotta love how digicon is in Hawaii too." Jeff put his bag next to Luke's and immediately went to the kitchen and started rummaging through the refrigerator. "So want to see how many of the neighbors come over if we have a barbecue?"

"Well seeing as our neighbors are a bunch of cute college girls… yes. Let's take a risk and try it." Luke came over next to his friend and started to pull things out of the refrigerator.

"Alright lets be careful here though, you know those crazy college kids…" Jeff chuckled, waving his hands in mock horror.

"Yeah a real threat… Remember Jeff if you hold hands with a girl you'll get pregnant and die. Don't forget that big boy." Luke patted Jeff on the back and took off out the sliding glass door with steak and burgers.

Jeff followed his friend with the rest of the implements necessary for a barbecue, and the two began to cook.

The two teens spent the night eating good food and spending time with good people. They had no idea what their future held but needless to say it is always calmest before the storm.


	5. Chapter 5

**So what did you guys think of Luke and Jeff? We'll go back to them later, but I just wanted to introduce them. This story is mostly tamers, so don't worry. I don't own digimon or anything like that so… yarp.**

"Soooo fullll…." Guilmon moaned, staggered around the hall.

"And whose fault is that?" Renamon sighed, gently pushing the wandering dinosaur out of her way.

"But it was a buffet!" Whined the saurian digimon, "I have to eat as much as I can…"

"Ughh… you're just as moronic as your tamer sometimes." Rika scoffed.

The tamers and their digimon wandered down the hall that their rooms were in, totally exhausted from their day at digicon. After their press conference the tamers got the chance to wander around digicon. While this might have been an enjoyable experience for other people, Takato, Henry and Rika were international icons. Constantly the trio and their digimon were being swarmed for autographs and pictures. The pestering even got to the point where even Terriermon was annoyed by the constant attention.

Takato staggered into his room, his swollen digimon in tow. "What a day boy… Sometimes I wish it would just go back to you and me… Running around with Rika and Henry, Terriermon and Renamon…"

"I know… but that would be too easy Takatomon." Guilmon moaned back at his tamer, collapsing face first in the bathroom with a thud.

Takato couldn't help but chuckle at his digimon. While he still talked like a child, the dinosaur digimon had become much more articulate and even made use of the heavy sarcasm he had picked up from Rika and Terriermon. Guilmon had changed a lot on the past few years… but then again, so had everyone else.

The young tamer changed out of his dress clothes and pulled on a pair of goalie sweats, and jumped up onto his bed. The sun had already sank below the horizon, but warm, salty aired still filled the room. Takato flipped on the tv, determined to relax for the first time in the day. Suddenly the young man heard the skitter of claws on a tiled floor, followed by a dragging sound on the carpet. With an amused expression he watched a red and black tail pass by the foot of his bed, as if it was the fin of a shark. Guilmon appeared at the foot of his own bed, having pushed himself across the floor with his hind legs.

"You alright there?" Takato said, a wide grin spreading across his tired features.

"I'm exhausted and full…. I don't want to move…" Grunted the dinosaur digimon, lazily eyeing his tamer.

"Alright one second." Takato said, and hopped off his bed.

He heaved his digimon up onto the bed with a mighty grunt. "Thanks Takatomon." Guilmon said, curling up in a ball.

The young man went back to his bed and flopped down on it. The pair watched television silently for an hour before Guilmon piped up.

"Takatomon I've known you for my entire life… and I have to ask, why don't you let anyone in?" Takato practically fell of his bed in shock at this statement.

"You're so worried and protective of your friends… you give so much of yourself to make other people happy. But you won't let anyone care about you. You insist that you're fine all the time. And everyone believes it. But I know that you're not happy Takato. Miss Rika does too. Henry as well."

Takato couldn't do anything but stutter. "H..h…hey… n…now. People don't need to know me. I'm happy, I really am…" Well I'm happier now… The young tamer thought to himself.

"Just let someone do something for you every once in a while. Let someone in… something tells me Rika might be a good person to start with." Guilmon said with a wink of his massive yellow eye.

Takato's face went bright red as he waved his hands feverently. "What what?"

Guilmon snickered at his surprise. "Ugh…" Takato responded to his digimon's laughter, crossing his arms.

"Well boy, we'll talk about Rika later. Just like we need to talk about you and Renamon!" Guilmon laughed even louder at this.

"What's to talk about? I like her and she gives me bread and tummy rubs." Guilmon rolled onto his back, paws idly waving in the air. "And well… I like sex. It feels so gooood… Better than bread even!"

"Ok ok ok enough…. I gotcha boy." Takato said, sighing. "So earlier you said I don't let anyone in… I let you in. Don't you know me?"

"Oh I know you, we're like brothers! We practically have the same mind, remember?" Guilmon smiled widely at his tamer, displaying rows of sharpened teeth.

"Your right… on both us and Rika." Takato said, nodding his head slightly.

"And Impmon says I don't get it… Well night Takatomon."

"Night boy, sleep tight."

Takato sat silently in his bed, letting his thoughts wander. He did not notice the door to his room that he had left slightly open slide even further, or the fact that it closed. The tamer did not notice the girl that slid into his room, ninja like, until she came and sat on the edge of his bed.

"Hey goggle dork. No shirt?" Whispered the red headed tamer.

"Ummm…" Takato blushed a bit, "It's hot out?"

"You're telling me…" The female tamer sighed, her eyes scanning the young man that sat in front of her.

Takato flicked his own gaze over Rika. She wore tight volleyball shorts, a sport that she had taken up in high school in order to keep in shape. The girl also wore a simple black sports bra and nothing else, her outfit speaking of her confidence in Takato.

"So Rika, about earlier…"

"What about it?" The young tamer crawled up the bed towards the young man, laying down next to him.

"Well… why did you ask me what I want?" Takato asked, looking down at Rika.

"Because Takato everything you do is for someone else. I mean hell… I was the Ice Queen before you came along. Now I'm just a bitch but still, I've got you to thank for melting me." Rika chuckled a bit, drawing a smile from Takato.

"So I wanted to know what you want.... what makes you happy."

Takato felt his heart jump at this. "Well… you make me happy Rika."

"Seeeee…" The red headed tamer sat up and swung her legs so she was sitting on Takato's lap. "Now we're getting somewhere…"

Rika pushed Takato down so that she was laying on top of him, and gently nuzzled his neck. "Rika…"

"Surprised?" Chuckled the Digimon Queen as she kissed Takato's neck.

"A bit…." Takato said in a low growl, wrapping his arms around his fellow tamer.

"Well this is me letting myself go…" Rika kissed her way up from Takato's neck to his cheek, and then slowly the lips of the two tamers met.

The pair shivered as they sank into the kiss, wrapping their limbs around each other. Takato felt Rika's mostly naked body press into his as the two teens let themselves sink deeper and deeper into pleasure.

Takato explored Rika's body as they kissed. He ran one hand down her naked back as he intertwined his fingers with her hair, tongue flicking over her lips. Takato shuddered as Rika ran her nails down his sides, his body involuntarily thrusting into hers.

The two tamers kissed harder and harder, but exhaustion was starting to overtake the pair. Takato moaned softly as Rika broke their kiss, but she made up for the halt by nuzzling into his neck, nipping at the teen gently.

Takato idly ran his hand down Rika's naked back as they cuddled in silence. "You aren't too bad of a kisser gogglehead." Came a sudden sleepy mutter from Rika.

"You aren't too bad yourself." Takato chuckled. "And ummm… thanks for breaking my shell."

"it's because you mean the world to me… I'll kick your ass…" Rika whispered, her violet eyes sliding shut.

Takato smiled as he watched Rika's breathing starting to slow down to a rhythmic rise and fall, meaning that she had drifted off to sleep. The young tamer closed his own eyes, and felt himself slowly slip off into the world of dreams.


	6. Chapter 6

**On to chapter six! This includes viewpoints of both the OC's and the Tamers so just bear with me here. Things get pretty graphic in this chapter, so heads up. I also would like to apologize for my slowing updates, college and racing has caught up with me. I don't own digimon or anything associated with it!**

Rika woke with a start, her eyes snapping open. The female tamer raised her head slowly, taking in her surroundings. She lay in a bed next to a gently snoring Takato, her arm still wrapped around him. Rika could not help but smile at the tamer that lay next to her. The marks she had made on his the previous night were still evident, and indeed she could still feel his lips caressing hers.

The young tamer sat up and stretched her back and neck popping. Rika looked over at the saurian digimon curled up on the bed to her left. He had built himself a nest out of the covers and pillows in typical Guilmon fashion.

"I have the most interesting collection of boys…" Rika muttered to herself.

The young tamer looked back up towards Takato's sleeping form, and with her slight smile growing Rika crawled up towards the young man. She straddled the boy and without warning grabbed his arms and pinned them above his head. Takato's eyes sprung open, his mouth opening to make some sort of exclamation. Rika quickly silenced the boy with a soft kiss, drawing a soft sigh out of Takato instead.

Rika could not help but softly sigh herself. Takato's lips gently caressed hers, and this drove the Digimon Queen crazy, but relaxed her at the same time. In other words, it was like nothing the young tamer had felt before.

Rika slowly drew apart from Takato, drawing back to simply sit on top of him. "Well good morning. Can I help you?" Takato said, winking broadly.

Rika rolled her eyes, "You are such a loser sometimes… thank god your cute."

"Oh come on now, you know that you can't resist me…" Takato bucked his hips so Rika fell forward, and the young man planted his lips on Rika's.

Instead of resisting, Rika instead chose to melt into the kiss, obeying the fluttering of her heart. _At this rate were not going to get out of bed for a while…_ Rika thought to herself, smirking slightly.

Luke sat on the large leather couch that filled the living room of the beach house, boredly watching Rick's List on CNN. A towel was wrapped around his waist, and the teen grimaced as the cold water from his hair dripped down onto his face.

"Christ and you give me a hard time for being slow. You're not even dressed yet!" Luke turned to see Jeff standing in the hallway, fully dressed. His hair was soaking wet, but he spun a pair of keys in his hand nonetheless to symbolize that he was ready.

"Dammit alright let me go get ready, I lost track of time. We'll be Oscar mike in ten mikes, just hold on." With that Luke ran down the hall past Jeff, bounding into his room.

The young man pulled on a pair of boardshorts and a simple white t-shirt. He pulled on a white baseball hat with a red bill and large W on the front, slid his feet into a pair of skate shoes, snatched his backpack and sprinted out the door as the bark of a boxster engine filled the beach house.

Takato led the group of tamers as they wandered through digicon, the six friends lazily eyeing the wares of vendors and doing their best to ignore the people constantly muttering about them and snapping pictures.

At the moment they were all idly looking through stacks of cards. Takato looked to his left at Rika idly flipping through modification cards, glancing at the statistics of a few every once on a while. "Hey check this out Takato!" Henry suddenly said, thrusting a card in the tamers direction.

"Haha well cool, I've never seen one of these before!" It was a card for Gallantmon Crimson mode.

Takato had made Guilmon from scratch and soon after destroying the D-Reaper Toei contacted him about making a Guilmon card. He had agreed and made a bit of money from the royalties, but this was the first version of this card he had seen. "Interesting…"

"Huh." Rika glanced over Takato's shoulder at the card. "Interesting."

Rika was drawn away by Renamon, who had found several modification cards that sparked her interest. Takato handed the card back to Henry and before he could ask the dealer about the new card he was thrusted forward by something, someone behind him.

The young tamer spun around to face his aggressor, confusion etched on his face. A group of Ogremon were shoving their way through the crowd, pushing people and digimon out of their way. One of the beastly digimon looked over his shoulder at Takato and snarled.

"What was that all about…" Terriermon murmured, walking up next to Takato.

"Who knows? It doesn't matter, they're probably lost or something." Takato said, twisting his lips out of nervousness all the same.

The group moved on down the row, moving into a large tented area sponsored by Red Bull. It was filled with merchandise and people, as well as a pleathora of cars. "Gogglehead! Get over here!" Came a sudden command from Rika.

Takato perked up his head, and scanned the booth until he saw Rika over by the men's clothing rack. He walked over to the red head, who held out a shirt in front of her.

"Whats up?" The young man asked, peering around the t-shirt.

"Well my man has to look good, so I'm picking out a shirt for you. Duh." Rika closed one eye, positioning the dark blue shirt so it looked as if Takato was wearing it.

"Ummm… Wha?"

"Just because I despise modeling and the clothes my mother likes doesn't mean that I can't like clothes, does it?" Rika pulled the shirt off its hangar and folded it in her arms. "And besides, you need more clothes."

Well ummm… thanks Rika." Takato stuttered, smiling a bit.

"No problem cutie." Rika walked off past the young tamer, pausing only for a second to plant a small kiss on his cheek.

Takato reveled in Rika's affection, rooted to the spot with a goofy grin spread across his face. "Takatomon?"

The young man looked down as Guilmon ran up and nosed his hand. "I don't like this… something's wrong…"

"What do you mean boy?" Takato asked absentmindedly, scanning the crowd.

"I've got a bad feeling… We should go Takato…" Suddenly something caught the young tamer's eye.

A teen stood at the front of the Red Bull tent, chatting away amiably with the other young man he was with. The teen had sharp blue eyes, curly blond hair and carried himself with an air of confidence that seemed to permeate the surrounding area. He was well muscled, and had a tattoo of an eagle and a fleur-de-leis on his calf.

Just like Rook.

"Hold on boy…" Takato started to walk towards the young man and his friend, intent on introducing himself, and demand what the teen was doing in his dreams.

The curly haired teen looked over at Takato, his blue eyes piercing into the tamer.

Suddenly a roar pierced the relatively calm sounds of Digicon. "FOR DIGITAL KIND!"

The world seemed to slow down to a crawl as all hell broke loose. The young man that looked like Rook snapped his head out towards the festival, and then back inwards at Takato. He grabbed his black haired friend and tossed him towards the ground.

"Wait what?" Takato stopped walking in surprise as the teen started to sprint directly at him.

The young man launched himself through the air at Takato, and tackled him to the ground.

A wave of heat and power swept through the tent, followed by flames as the air itself was ignited. Takato gasped as the tent disappeared above him, the rest of his body protected by the teen. He felt the force of the explosion push his face, as if it wanted to tear the skin off of his skull.

The young man on top of Takato sat up, looking down at Takato. His mouth moved, but no words came out. Instead there was only a ringing, and it seemed like the world had gone eerily silent.

"Rook?" Takato said in an attempt to speak.

The blue eyed boy cocked his head, eyes narrowing. But before he could do anything to respond a crimson blur threw him off of the young tamer.

Guilmon stood at Takato's side, eyes narrowed and teeth bared. "Takatomon we need to merge, now!" came a faint growl from the saurian digimon.

Takato sat up and looked around. The vendor's booths had been torn down, flattened by what seemed like a massive explosion. People lay all around, and the closer Takato looked the more devastation he saw.

Broken bodies lay everywhere. Bodies burned, and slowly the screams started. Takato saw a mother limply covering her little girl, the young child almost burned beyond all recognition.

A Lopmon tugged on the arm of a young boy, begging him to wake up despite the fact that he had no body from the waist down.

"No…" Whispered Takato, "No… this isn't happening."

He felt rage blossom in his heart. It filled his body, and he got to his feet, pulling out his D-arc. "No… NO!"

With the swipe of a card Takato felt himself soar up into the air, and merge with Guilmon seamlessly.

Gallantmon raised his armored head, looking across the wreckage that was once Digicon. Several groups of large digimon wandered the smoldering remains of tents and booths, scanning for survivors.

"I don't know who the HELL THEY THINK THEY ARE," Roared MegaGargomon, coming to stand next to Gallantmon, "BUT THEY ARE ABOUT TO BE FUCKING DESTROYED FOR THIS!"

Sakuyamon came to stand on the other side of Gallantmon, spinning her staff. "Let's kill these bastards." Whispered the kitsune goddess.

A Gigasmon swung it's head to look at the merged tamer's, it's eyes narrowing in contempt. "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!!!!!!!" Gallantmon roared, and the trio hurled themselves at the groups of rogue digimon wandering around.

Before the Gigasmon could respond Gallantmon had run it through with his lance, the digimon disappearing with a roar. The knight smashed in the skull of another Gigasmon with his shield, and flipped backwards.

"LIGHTNING LANCE!" Takato and Guilmon roared in synchronization, and pure energy flew out of their lance and struck down two more Arbormon. "Come on fuckers! You can attack innocent people, so how about coming after someone who can fight back!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Well we're actually getting into the plot now, and you guys seem to be enjoying it so let's keep on going! Thanks for the reviews, they really help! I don't own digimon and anything associated with it.**

Groaning, Luke sat up hesitantly, clutching his chest as pain spiked through his body. Slowly getting to his feet, the young man took a second to take in his surroundings. The Red Bull tent had been completely destroyed by the blast, along with most of digicon. People and digimon alike were scattered around, some unmoving, some crawling, a few walking, and all moaning in pain and terror.

Flames licked at different objects, a rack of destroyed t-shirts slowly being engulfed by orange fire to Luke's immediate right. The teen slowly rose to his feet, and proceeded to stagger around.

_Jeff._

_I have to find Jeff…_ Luke made his way over to where he had thrown his friend, stepping over bits of tent and people. "Help… please…" came a soft cry from around Luke's feet.

He looked down and saw an Agumon, covered in blood, clutching the body of a young boy who could not be older than thirteen.

Grimacing Luke tore his shirt off and knelt down, placing his fingers on the boy's neck. A faint pulse came through. "Put him down." Rasped the young man, and he began to examine the young boy's body for wounds.

He has a large gash in his side, blood actively pouring out of the wound. Luke tied his shirt tightly around the gaping hole, grabbing several more t-shirts from a destroyed Red Bull stand and adding those to his rudimentary bandage.

"Is… is he gonna… is he gonna die?" Asked the orange dinosaur digimon, his voice choked with tears.

"Probably not. Get to a safe place. Now." Luke said, a lump building in his throat.

With that the teen stood up and made his way over to where he had thrown Jeff. Looking across the plaza he heard the screeching and clanging of metal-on-metal, and watched as an enormous silver knight blocked the blow of a massive, black angel before kicked the digimon to the ground. An enormous, feminine kitsune wielding a staff appeared and with a roar stomped on the angels throat. Then with her staff she ran it through the skull of the dark angel, the evil digimon screaming as it dissipated into data.

Luke cast around for his friend, heart starting to pound as his initial scan revealed nothing. Suddenly a bit of canvas and wood flew up in the air, and Jeff slowly got to his feet. "Holy shit mate… holy shit…" Luke said, tears welling in his eyes, "I thought you were fucking dead."

"I'm good… thanks. For saving my life." Jeff said with a grin, dusting himself off.

"Yeah…" Luke growled, wiping his eyes. "Fuck you." He said with a slight grin.

"No thanks." Jeff chuckled, turning to look at the battle raging behind them. "We might want to vacate the zone, it's kind of hot."

"Agreed, lets get out of – fuck get down!" Luke suddenly hissed, and Jeff dived behind a table as the curly-haired teen crouched down.

A Beazulmon prowled the destruction, ignoring the battle raging behind him. Instead the digimon chose to wander around the remains of digicon, looking for possibly easier prey.

"What the hell is this guy doing?" Luke whispered to himself, positioning himself behind a fallen table.

The demon digimon suddenly stopped, a wicked smile gracing his lips. A teenage girl was attempting to crawl away from the Beazulmon, and Luke could hear her softly sobbing.

Wordlessly the demon raised his foot and brought it down on the girls back, drawing a scream. "Please… what are you doing?! What are you doing?!"

The young man grimaced, muscles tensing as he listened to the teenage girl sob and plead. "This is not happening… this is not fucking happening…"

The Beazulmon drew one of his pistols, his maniacal smile becoming a laugh. This increased the screaming and crying of the young girl, and she began to beat at his boot in an attempt to escape.

"Shit." Luke was covered in a cold sweat as he listened to the girl plead for her life, his entire body shaking. "No… no."

The young man grabbed a tablecloth and yanked a folded knife from his back pocket. Flicking it open, he vaulted over the table and sprinted towards the demon digimon.

The Beazulmon looked up from his prey and snarled. He cocked his pistol and pointed it at the sprinting teen. Luke tossed the tablecloth at the digimon and dodged to the left. Out of pure reaction the digimon fired a shot into the tablecloth, the fabric becoming engulfed in flame.

But Luke's eyes were locked on the digimon in front of him. That was all that mattered. The teen dipped his shoulder and screwed his eyes shut, and dug his feet into the ground.

The young man felt himself slam into metallic armour, cold skin and toughened muscles. Yet all of those collapsed under Luke's attack, and the Beazulmon gasped in surprise.

Luke opened his eyes as he felt the demon hit the ground, and before the startled digimon could react Luke sat up and rammed his knife into the side of Beazulmon's neck.

The boy gasped as he sat on the digimon's chest. "Fuck… I just killed… a damn digimon…"

Every human had the fact beaten into their heads that they should never, ever, ever take on a digimon. Ever. Most digimon were incredibly tough, and very difficult to kill by traditional human means.

This became quickly apparent.

The Beazulmon grabbed Luke by his neck, eyes snapping open. "Stupid fucking kid!" Roared the enraged digimon.

Luke felt himself fly off of the Beazulmon, the teen wincing as he ground into the cement.

Sitting up quickly, he saw Jeff attempting to tackle the enraged demon yet again. The digimon batted the teen away as if he were a fly, knocking the boy into the air behind him.

Luke coughed as he struggled to stand up, grabbing franticly at his chest. Blood spattered the asphalt in front of him, making the young man's heart pound even harder.

The teen managed to stagger to his feet, backing away from the chuckling Beazulmon. With a sudden step forward the digimon appeared in front of Luke, winking at the boy before planting a fist in his stomach.

Luke was hurled backwards, landing again on the hard pavement. "God…dammit…" The teen coughed, blood leaking out of his mouth.

The young man attempted to drag himself backwards, kicking his legs out.

Anything.

Anything to get up and keep fighting.

Luke could feel the warm, rough asphalt under his palms as he scooted backwards, his eyes locked on the advancing demon.

Pain was constantly rushing through his body, from the sharp pain in his chest to the dull ache that came from his stomach.

The young man could taste the harshness of the blood in his mouth, the bile coming up each time he coughed.

Luke spat out the congealed blood, speckling his naked chest with red dots.

Slowly the teen tucked one leg back, leveraging himself to his feet yet again. He staggered backwards before regaining stability.

Yet his eyes never left the Beazulmon.

"Persistent little twerp aren't you?" Chuckled the demon, raising his revolver and leveling it at the teen.

"Oh fuck you." Luke growled, wiping his mouth.

"You humans don't deserve to live, you and your disgusting digimon pets. Your just target practice." With a snarl the Beazulmon pulled the hammer back on his revolver. "Now I'm going to kill you so that your little friends can watch. It'll be fun…"

Luke ran through option after option in his head, all of them ending with him dead. _Well…. Damn. This sucks. I guess I'll just get shot and try to get away… or something…_

But before Luke could finish his macabre ruminations a yellow blur knocked the demon digimon's weapon out of his hand, the gun skittering across the pavement.

Before either the teen or the Beazulmon could react the yellow blur reappeared, stopping directly in front of the injured teen.

A tail gently swung about, a thick, long appendage with a white tip. A firm and round butt led down to muscled thighs and ivory furred calves, and clawed, white paws.

A tight, thin waist and muscled back led up to firm shoulders, graced by small winglets. Toned arms were swallowed up by black gauntlets, and three clawed paws were tightly clenched in preparation for a battle.

A bit of a ruffle could be seen from the back, the white fur gently swaying in the wind. Long ears were tipped in white, and sat flush against the back of the digimon's head.

Luke felt adrenaline rush through his body.

His defender was a female yellow Renamon.

A beautiful one at that.

"You seem to be good at threatening humans, how about taking me on for a change?" Whispered the kitsune, her soft voice flowing like water.

"BITCH!" Roared the Beazulmon, taking a step back.

He seemed prepared to dash at the Renamon, but in the blink of an eye the digimon disappeared.

"POWER PAW!" Luke heard the roar come in from his right, and he watched in silence as the Renamon hefted a paw, glowing with power, and punched the knife that Luke had driven into the Beazulmon's neck earlier.

The handle of the knife disappeared into the digimon's neck, the demon turning to look at his attacker in horror.

The Beazulmon collapsed to his knees, gurgling, and exploded into data.

The Renamon simply stood there, in the spot where the demon digimon had once been, data swirling around her. She flicked her gaze over to Luke, who matched it.

Her eyes were the sharpest blue. Piercing. Like ice.

The teen could feel himself dissolving under her hard eyes, but narrowed his own eyes nonetheless.

"Well. Thank you." Luke growled, coughing up a bit of blood.

"Are you injured?" The Renamon asked, turning towards the boy.

"I'm fine. Thank you for saving me. Now I need to help." Luke took a cautious step forward.

Pain shot through his broken body, but the teen continued his advance to where he knew Jeff lay.

"You fought honorably." The Renamon said as Luke walked past, examining the teen.

Luke grimaced as he felt the digimon's blue eyes scanning his body. "As did you. I was just trying to do the right thing."

Luke reached Jeff, the black haired boy sitting up and attending to another victim. "You alright mate?"

Jeff nodded, wincing in pain. "The tamers drove off the digimon, they chased them into the ocean… that's where they're fighting now anyways."

Luke grunted in recognition, and turned to face the kitsune.

"Doing the right thing…. Is that what your tattoo is about?" The Renamon cocked her head at the boy, crossing her arms.

"It's the Scout Law. Twelve words that I am challenged to live by because of who I am."

"And that would be?"

"An Eagle Scout." Luke knelt down and turned over a teenage boy, grimacing at the sheet metal that he found lodged in the chest of the teen.

"A knight… Very well then." Luke looked up to see the Renamon stride over to him and put out her paw.

In it rested a D-Arc. The device was matte black with yellow metal around certain pieces, matching the digimon that was holding it.

Luke fell over in surprise.

"Your… your kidding. Right? Me… me?" The teen felt himself stutter uncontrollably.

"Yes. I want you to be my tamer." Luke stared up at the beautiful digimon standing above him.

She was wreathed in the orange glow of the setting Hawaii sun, the air shimmering from the fires all around. Her tight, ivory furred stomach led up to a chest covered by a white ruffle, which moved gently, as if of its own accord.

Rescue personnel started to sprint onto the scene, red and blue lights adding to the chaos of colors. Luke stuck out his hand, tentatively wrapping it around the machine that the digimon held out in front of her.

He felt a shock flow through his body, and through blurred eyes he saw the Renamon twitch, and heard her gasp.

Black dots started to fill Luke's vision, and his unwilling brain slowly gave way, rendering the teen unconscious.

The last thing Luke felt was his shoulder hit the warm asphalt.


	8. Chapter 8

**Well Luke has a partner now, the Renamon. But we'll talk more about that later… On to the Tamers! I apologize if my descriptions are a bit graphic and macabre, but I'm just trying to set a mood. And if I'm not doing it, let me know! Hahaha well let's hear it for Boston's Boy also. Well that's my little editorial, and I don't own digimon or anything to do with it. If I did you would be watching this stuff happen on youtube.**

Takato stared at his hands, watching them shake uncontrollably.

His breath was ragged, and the sounds around him seemed to be dulled, as if he was listening to everything from afar.

He could feel the cold sweat that engulfed his body, the fluids mixing with the dried blood from his wounds.

He could still feel his arm ringing from the constant blows that rained down on his shield.

He could still hear the crunch of bones as he impaled snarling digimon out of pure rage.

He could feel the data from his deleted foes becoming one with his and Guilmon's body, making them that much stronger.

But the tamer could not forget the faces of the slaughtered innocent.

The dead and burned bodies of the young and old.

The shattered and broken bodies of crying children.

Takato felt something drip onto his hand.

Blinking slowly, the teen resurfaced, coming back into the real world.

Tears streamed from the boy's eyes.

Mixing with the sweat and blood.

Slowly the young man slid off of the bumper of the ambulance he had been sitting on, and looked around.

Rescue personnel of all sorts milled around. From firefighters and paramedics to uniformed members of the National Guard, all sorts of people swarmed what had once been a living, happy festival. Now a sense of urgency and shock filled the air.

To Takato's right an aid station had been set up, for those who were not being airlifted out to surrounding hospitals. Civilians sat around in sort of a daze, clutching bandages, some comforting one another, others choosing to exist in silence.

On the tamer's left were rows of black bags. They were closed for the most part, but the top was left unzipped. Out poked the faces of the deceased, eyes closed.

They lay in rows, dozens of them. A priest wandered the rows, blessing the deceased. Doctors placed identification tags on the bags as well, and near many body bags kneeled more victims. Takato winced as he heard a young boy softly start to sob, laying his head down on what looked to be his deceased mother's chest. A Bearmon stood next to the boy, embracing him in the best hug the digimon could manage.

Takato went to the other side of the ambulance, and found the rest of his friends, all sitting in a circle, silent and unmoving. They looked up at Takato, and stood as one.

"Well…" Takato whispered hoarsely, "Is everyone okay?"

Without a word in response the group nodded, and the three teens and their digimon suddenly collapsed into an enormous group hug. Takato sighed as he wrapped his arms around Henry and Guilmon, resting his head gently against Renamon's.

"Hey guys…" Terriermon suddenly piped up, "What's up?"

This brought up loose grins all around. "Love you Terr…" Henry chuckled.

"Excuse me," A gruff voice spouted up from behind the group, the teens and digimon splitting up and turning to face the speaker, "My name is Brian Ezuhora, and I'm a detective with Maui PD. If you all don't mind I would like to collect statements from each one of you."

Takato looked around at his teammates, and then nodded. "Sure detective, anything to help."

After his interview with the detective Takato started to wander back to where the rest of the tamers sat, waiting to be called over. Things had calmed down considerably, most of the wounded had been evacuated, and the rest of the uninjured digicon attendees had been sent home. Work crews shoveled away under harsh floodlights analyze each and every bit of the wreckage, attempting to determine what the cause of this disaster was.

Instead of going back to his friends, the teen decided to head over to the car show area, which was situated right by the ocean. With all intent of simply clearing his head, he set his sights on the wall that protected the lot from the ocean. Takato brushed past a crimson Subaru and dodged a white M3 that was slowly pulling out of the lot, and cleaned up against the railing that ran along the top of the sea wall.

Takato took a deep breath, the salty air flowing into his lungs. Exhaling softly, the teen let his shoulders slump as if the weight of the world was upon them. "Hey!" A sudden shout shook Takato out of his silence, the teen turning around to see who was talking to him in English.

It was the curly-haired teen from earlier, the one who had shielded him from the explosions. He had a white bandage on his cheek, and his right arm and leg were wrapped up as well. Bandages wound around his chest as well, with large purple and black bruises on the teen's stomach. Dried blood covered different parts of his body, making the boy truly a sight to behold.

Takato's stomach flipped. Rook. It was Rook. Images from dreams flashed through Takato's head, leaving no doubt that the man who was advancing on Takato was indeed Rook.

"You alright mate?" The blue-eyed teen asked, stopping in front of the tamer.

"Y…Yeah." Stuttered Takato in English, suprising himself with his own skill. _Maybe I do pay attention in school sometimes, even if I don't realize it…. _"Thanks for saving me…. Are you alright?"

Luke grinned a bit at this, "It was the right thing to do, y'know? You saved humanity from the D-Reaper so I guess I'm sort of repaying the favor. I'm alright though, a bit banged up but I'll live."

"More than a bit banged up…" Takato chuckled, "I really do appreciate it though. What's your name?"

"Luke Ekelstone, my friends sometimes call me Rook though if that helps!" Takato's brain leapt into overdrive. "And you're the ever famous Takato Matsuda by my count."

"Rook?" Takato whispered, his crimson eyes growing wide.

"Yeah… sound familiar or something?"

"Yeah actually…" Takato shook his head and regained his composure, ignoring Luke's raised eyebrow. "Car forums. I've heard that name before on car forums."

"Ohhhh!" Luke said with a grin, "Yeah I dabble in cars a bit. You?"

"I've ventured out onto the vast internet valley that car fiends live in once or twice." Takato said, matching Luke's smile.

While Takato was lying through the skin of his teeth, he had made an educated guess about the young man that stood in front of him. The black haired teen that he had seen Luke with earlier was standing by a crimson Subaru with a… Renamon?

"Awesome, if you're ever interested in learning more about cars then just facebook me so we can talk! Lord knows we all need something to keep our minds off today… Well I just wanted to make sure that you're alright." Luke stuck out his hand, and as Takato shook it he could feel the blue eyed teen almost crush his hand. "I'll let you go mate, I'm sure you've got something to do."

"Alright I'll add you as soon as I can, and thanks again for saving me… It's weird saying this but I might not be alive if it weren't for you."

Luke shrugged, "Who knows… we saved who we could. We're not superheros, unfortunately…" With a wave the teen walked off, leaving Takato alone to be with his thoughts.

It was two AM when Takato gently kicked open the door to his hotel room, carrying a snoring red dinosaur piggyback style. Depositing his load on a bed, Takato flopped face first onto his own bed.

Thoughts and memories flowed through the young man's head, some of them enraging and others piquing Takato's interest. Brushing all of these things aside, Takato rolled over and sat up.

Rika.

Putting his feet back on the ground, the young man walked out into the hall and down several doors, wandering into the slightly open that he knew belonged to the digimon queen.

Knocking gently on the door frame, the young tamer walked inside.

On one of the beds in the room sat Rika. Her orange hair spilled down onto her shoulders. She did not move, and failed to recognize Takato as he walked further into the room.

Her shirt was ripped and torn, and a white bandage could be seen through one of the tears through her shirt. Her shorts lay on the floor, brown with blood and singed from the explosion.

"Hey…" Takato slowly got onto the opposite side of the bed from Rika, and crawled across towards the silent teen.

Wordlessly he sat down behind her, and wrapped his arms around the female tamer's waist. Rika responded by shakily placing her hands on his legs.

The digimon queen leaned her head back and gently kissed Takato on the cheek, and the young man was surprised to feel her wet cheeks against his as Rika rested her head on his.

Renamon lay sprawled out on the bed across from the couple, passed out from exhaustion. The normally quaint and proper digimon was snoring ever so slightly, something that brought a slight smile to Takato's lips.

"I'm so glad your okay…" whispered Takato as Rika nuzzled him slightly, kissing her on the cheek in return.

"Takato I… I… I've never had anyone care about me the way you do…." Rika whispered, her voice catching a bit, "Please, please, please don't die on me…"

Takato embraced Rika tightly as she began to sob quietly.


	9. Chapter 9

**Risky Devils and Offset Crew fer days. So what do you guys think, more or less OC's? As readers you guys are part of the driving force behind my writing, so I want you to have some sort of say! I don't own digimon or anything to do with it. If I did, my car would have a new intercooler…**

Takato wrapped the towel around his waist, took one last look in the mirror, and stepped out of the bathroom.

After putting Rika to bed last night the Takato had wandered back into his room and sat on his bed, unable to sleep after the day's events. Guilmon had eventually arisen from his slumber to sit silently by his tamer, and together the duo watched the sun rise from the ocean, bathing the world in warm, golden light.

After passing out leaning up against each other around seven in the morning, Takato awoke at noon and went to workout and take a shower.

The young tamer got dressed as Guilmon paced around the room, the growling of his stomach audible.

"Alright boy you ready to go?"

"Food food food food food food!" Guilmon chanted in response to his tamer, and bounded out the door.

"Hold on a second Guil, I need to check on someone." Takato said to the back of his digimon, the saurian waving a claw in response.

Takato walked down the hall to Rika's room, knocking gently on the door. A groggy Renamon opened the door, her fur sticking up in different ways.

"Yes?"

Takato's heart jumped into his throat. Despite the fact that he had known the kitsune for several years, she still managed to scare the living hell out of him. "Ahhh… Is Rika here?"

Renamon responded by opening the door farther, admitting the teen. The digimon then ducked into the bathroom, leaving Takato alone.

The young tamer walked into the hotel room, poking his head into the room with the beds. "Rika?"

The Digimon Queen stood in front of a mirror, clad in little more than dark purple panties and a black lace bra.

Trying his best to look away, Takato could barely pick his jaw up off the floor. _Dear god… Rika is smoking hot…_

Indeed the female tamer was incredibly attractive. Her slender white legs led up to a firm, round ass. She had a tight waistline and from what Takato could see, incredibly generous breasts.

"Hey you. Can I help you?" Rika didn't even turn to look at Takato, unfazed by her current state of dress and the man in the room.

"Uhhh… well… I just came by… to… yeah… and… yeah… I don't think I need help anymore…" Takato couldn't help but blather. His teenage brain could barely form coherent words, much less sentences.

Rika swept her hair up and tied it in her traditional style, and slowly started to walk over to Takato. "I see that someone finds their girlfriend incredibly attractive." Rika whispered, blushing a bit herself.

"Mmmnyeeshhh…" Takato sputtered, standing stock still as Rika advanced on him.

Slowly Rika wrapped arms around Takato and snuggled into his chest, pressing her naked body up against his.

"How come I never got to see this side of you before?" Takato whispered, wrapping his arms around the girl contently nuzzling his chest.

"Because Takato… your… you're the first person I've ever felt totally comfortable with… you're my world I suppose." Takato couldn't help but smile as a warm feeling spread through his body.

This girl, in her skimpy underwear, who could still kick his butt, who had been so harsh and mean to him over the years, just told him that he was her world.

"Well Rika… I don't even have words to describe how I feel… wow…" A thought crossed Takato's mind, and the teen chuckled, "But this might help."

Before Rika could say anything Takato swept Rika up into his arms and planted his lips on hers. He felt Rika giggle and wrap her legs around him, and Takato slid his eyes shut as he sank deeper into their kiss.

Takato tossed the digimon queen onto her bed, and pounced on her with gusto, Rika giggling and smiling as Takato jumped on top of her.

Wordlessly Takato pressed his lips onto Rika's again, and the pair started to kiss harder and harder. The young tamer could taste Rika's sweet lip gloss as his tongue gently played with hers, the pair sloppily kissing each in growing passion.

But before things could go any farther Takato broke their kiss, Rika frowning in protest. "Now do you see how I feel?" Whispered Takato, turning Rika's frown into a smile.

"I get the picture lover boy." Rika said with a wink.

"Good." Takato said, and dove back into another passionate kiss.

This time the young man fully embraced his mostly naked girlfriend, allowing their bodies to grind and bump. Without meaning to Takato slowly started to rub his growing erection against Rika's crotch. He shuddered as his throbbing member rubbed along the fabric that hid Rika's pussy, the digimon queen kissing Takato harder and harder as the rubbing increased.

Rika suddenly broke their kiss, and wrapped her arms around Takato tightly, thrusting her crotch up against his swollen cock one last time. "Oh for the love of Calumon! Oh damn…" Gasped Rika, biting Takato firmly on the shoulder, "That… felt… amazing!"

Takato chuckled, sweat beading on his brow from his frantic grinding with Rika. "Oh really now?"

"Yes! Good lord we're doing that again later goggledork." Rika let herself fall from Takato's neck, staring up at the boy with her bright eyes, "Did you like it?"

Takato smiled and kissed Rika gently, drawing away and sitting up before responding. "Well duh!"

The young tamer looked down at Rika's crotch and turned bright red. Rika's purple panties were dark around her pussy, and the smell of horny teenager was drifting up from it.

Before either Takato or Rika could say anything Renamon walked out of the bathroom, stopping at the foot of the bed and casting an eye of the pair of furiously blushing teenagers. Her nose twitched a bit, and a sparkle jumped into her eyes. "Enjoy yourself Rika?"

"Incredibly." Said Rika, keeping her cool as Takato simply allowed his mouth to hang open, "You enjoy your little one digimon shower party?"

Renamon's ear's shot straight up, her tail starting to swish furiously. "What do you mean?"

"Mmm nothing, sometimes at home you moan pretty loud." Takato was sure that if Renamon was capable of blushing, she would be deeper crimson than Guilmon.

"Well that video we rented was very… informative. So I had to take advantage of it." Responded the kitsune, turning around to cast an imperious eye down on Rika.

Takato was sure that his brain had lost the ability to speak and think. Renamon and Rika were… risqué? What was this world coming to?

"It was your idea. A good… learning experience. But totally your idea." Rika said, and both she and Renamon collapsed into giggles.

Takato simply sat on the bed, looking from Rika and then to Renamon. _So this is what happens at girl sleepovers… and I didn't even know Renamon could laugh!_

Before anyone could say anything else Guilmon lumbered into the room, nose twitching to take in all the scents that filled the hotel bedroom. "Are you three coming to breakfast? Henry, Terriermon and I have been waiting for you forever and I'm so hungry! Oh and I'm supposed to call you lazy bums. So boo."

Takato felt Rika kiss him on his cheek, and he turned to see the tamer swing her legs off the bed and stand up. "Alright get out of here loser. Renamon and I will be down in a bit."

"Alright well hurry your ass up, I don't know what's taking you so long to get dressed." Takato said with a smirk, and as he stood up to leave the young man pinched Rika's ass. "Seeya!"

Rika spun around, raising her fists as Takato sprinted out of the room, Guilmon following closely behind as he participated in what he guessed was some sort of game.

Takato slowed to a walk, Guilmon slowly catching up with as the pair neared the end of the hall. "Sorry buddy, I lost track of the time…" Takato said, Guilmon shrugging off the apology.

"It's alright, smells like you were enjoying yourself anyways." Guilmon grinned up at his partner, the young man rolling his eyes sarcastically.

"You could say that…"


	10. Chapter 10

**Finals… it's all good. No one studies anyways. I don't own digimon or anything associated with it.**

The bright, warm sun shone down on Takato, the young man sprawled out on a white beach chair, clad in sunglasses and board shorts. He lay on a beige beach that seemed to stretch across the entire island of Maui, the rough volcanic sand being kicked up by thousands of people and digimon. Waves softly roared in, the sounds of the water mixed with the giggling of children and digimon.

Despite the spectacular weather and beautiful beach, a blanket of somberness seemed like it had been draped over the entire island. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, but only to a certain point.

A weight seemed to drag everyone down, making them stop every once in a while and think. This applied especially to Takato.

Despite the fact the he was relaxing in one of the world's ideal vacation spots with some of his closest friends, every time he closed his eyes he could see his gauntleted hand crushing the head of a DarkAngemon, his shield blocking the attack of another enraged demon.

Every time the teen stopped to think all of the thoughts, memories, and smells of the day before came rushing back.

Sighing quietly to himself, Takato sat up and took a sip from the drink planted underneath his chair. As he scanned the beach absentmindedly, Henry walked up, idly twirling a Frisbee on his finger.

"Want to play?" The blue haired boy asked, tossing the Frisbee at Takato.

"You know it!" The teen chuckled, spring to his feet to catch the flying disk.

"Y'know normally that would just bounce off your forehead, I have to say I'm impressed." Said a sarcastic voice from behind Henry, which turned out to belong to Renamon.

"Well are you playing fuzz butt?" Henry said, cocking his head out towards the water.

"Duh."

The trio headed out towards the water, wading in up to their waists. While the events of yesterday still weighed heavily on the minds of both tamers and digimon, they still were in Hawaii to have fun.

On the other side of the island two more boys had another Renamon to deal with, but this one was decidedly more of a handful. After spending a long night on the couch, Luke had arisen to the smell of bacon and eggs. Grunting gently, the teen stood up and stretched out, his joints popping. Gasping slightly in pain, Luke looked down at his bandaged and bruised body.

"Fuck me…" He groaned quietly.

Wearing only a pair of boxers the young man wandered into the kitchen to find Jeff making breakfast, the teen bandaged similarly to Luke.

"Hey mate," Luke said, standing across the island from Jeff, "How ya feeling?"

"Been better…" Jeff shrugged a bit, "How about you sir digimon tamer?"

"Still in slight denial… But first things first… are you really alright man? I mean yesterday… I don't even know. I can't describe it. So much happened…" Luke ran his hands errantly through his curls, sun playing over his body.

"Yeah… I know what you mean." Jeff pushed his food onto a plate, turned off the stove and promptly laid his elbows on the table so he could put his face into his palms. "Holy shit… Luke so many people died. Right there. There were children there… some of those kids didn't even know what life was like yet…"

The pair stood in silence for a bit, both teens at a loss for words.

"There has to be a reason for what happened… I'm sure that they'll find something. I'm sure of it." Luke said after a while, his voice slightly gruff.

"They did it because they hate humans." Came a soft female voice from behind Luke, and the teen turned to see a recently roused Renamon standing at the entrance into the kitchen, "they despise you and digimon with tamers more than anything."

"Why do they hate us though? What did we do?" Jeff asked, looking up at the yellow fox digimon.

"They believe humans and their digimon are weak, and that they should inherit the human world after what the D-Reaper did to the digital world. I suppose you could say that the digimon that attacked you believe the strong should inherit the earth." The Renamon crossed her arms as her ears flicked around.

"Sounds like a textbook extremist group… Oh well. It's not like it's our job to deal with them." Luke cast his gaze towards the floor nervously before looking up at the Renamon that stood in front of him, "So umm… how are you?"

"Good."

"Well… are you hungry?"

"I suppose."

"Alright well here I'll make you something… Anything you want?" Luke walked over to the fridge, Jeff tossing him a questioning glance.

"No."

"Ummm…." Luke rummaged through the refrigerator, the short answers the kitsune was giving starting to wear on his nerves, "Alright. Jeff go ahead and go take a shower… I've got this."

The green-eyed teen left silently, leaving Luke alone with the Renamon. The teen pulled out eggs, bacon and several other ingredients, and placed them on the island in the middle of the kitchen that held the stove.

"Well thanks for saving me yesterday… That Beazulmon would have killed me if you hadn't stepped in… I owe you one."

The Renamon shrugged, her dark eyes watching the teen cook. "It was nothing."

"So I have to ask then, why did you save me?"

The kitsune digimon was silent for a bit before responding "Because twice you threw yourself into danger to save two complete strangers. You must have known that the Beazulmon would have no problems with killing you, yet you attacked him without reserve. Your actions were admirable, so I decided to step in."

Luke nodded, staring silently at the eggs and began sputtering in the pan. "Well thank you."

The young man finished cooking in silence, and spread out the food onto two plates. Grabbing silverware, he cocked his head towards the sliding glass doors that led out to the porch. The Renamon followed Luke out onto the porch, and Luke handed her a plate and sat down on the steps that led out to the beach.

Anxiously the digimon sat down next to the boy, and out of the corner of his eye Luke saw her glance over several at him several times before picking up her own fork and dig into the food.

The pair sat in silence for a bit, Luke unsure of what to say and the Renamon seeming to not want to say anything at all. The teen and digimon finished their food hastily, and Luke stacked the two plates on top of each other.

"So… why me?" Luke blurted out suddenly, the Renamon's ears flicking. "Why do you want me to be your tamer?"

"Because you have no problem with helping others despite the danger to yourself, you are a knight, and well…" The fox digimon paused for a second, her long ears flattening against her head, "My heart told me I should choose you." The Renamon said quickly, turning her back to the boy.

Luke could not help but grin at this. "Well thank you… I'm flattered." The teen heard the Renamon snort slightly, which seemed to provide a crack in the ice.

"Can I confide something in you?" Luke asked. Taking the digimon's silence as a yes, he continued, "I always dreamed of being a tamer… I just never thought I was good enough for a digimon to choose me. I'm no knight. I'm not chivalrous, honorable, or anything like that…"

"You said you were an Eagle. That is knight enough for me. And you saved three lives yesterday. That is proof of your honor."

Luke felt color coming into his cheeks, and his grin spread. "Thank you… The way you stepped in was pretty risky too. You took on a champion and won. Easily. That's pretty damn impressive."

The Renamon turned back around, and looked dead into Luke's eyes. "Well someone had to save you. And I wouldn't have been able to take him out without you stabbing him in the neck."

Luke chuckled a bit, and he swore that a bit of a grin crept onto the Renamon's otherwise expressionless face. "So we work well together."

"That we do."

"This could work out."

"Indeed."

Luke stood up and grabbed the plates, "Wait here for a second, I'll be right back." Luke went back into the kitchen and unceremoniously dumped the plates into the sink.

The boy then went down the hall and grabbed a pair of board shorts. Pulling them on gently, the teen winced a bit before lacing up the trunks. Luke walked back out onto the porch, the yellow kitsune eyeing him. "Are you alright? I meant to ask earlier; but you took quite a beating yesterday."

Luke shrugged, "I'm worse than I was before the explosion."

"Of course you are…" Sighed the digimon, rolling her eyes.

"Was that sarcasm?" Luke said, snickering a bit at his digimon.

"Yes."

Sighing, Luke walked down past the Renamon, standing on the warm sands of the beach. "Were going on a walk."

"We are?" The Renamon rose from the porch steps, "Alright then…"

Takato waded out of the water, gasping and completely soaked. To his right were Renamon, Rika and Henry, all three in a similar state. The group staggered over to their beach chairs and collapsed, all four exhausted.

"That was…" Sighed Henry, settling into his chair, "The most fun I have had in a while. And Renamon, when the hell did you learn how to throw a Frisbee so hard?"

The kitsune chuckled, taking a sip from a waterbottle she had stowed in the shade before responding. "Well when you three go to school Guilmon, Terriermon and I have to find some way to entertain ourselves."

Rika nodded, and sat down next to Takato. "Makes sense. Speaking of lizard boy and the amazing rabbit, has anyone seen them?"

Everyone shook their heads, and Renamon shrugged. "They'll be fine wherever they went… They'll find us." Said the kitsune.

Too exhausted to care, the foursome collapsed collectively. Before he could think about what he would set into motion, Takato leaned over to Rika and gently kissed the young girl. Rika kissed back, and smiled at the teen as he drew away.

"Ummm… What just happened?" Came Henry's voice, and Takato turned to see the Chinese boy's mouth hanging open.

"Oh… yeah… Umm were dating… I guess you didn't know…" Takato said, color coming to his cheeks.

Henry shook his head silently, and Renamon snorted in amusment. "And I thought I didn't understand you two before…"

Rika chuckled, shaking her head, "Your such a gogglehead… You didn't tell Henry?"

"Well no, I kind of forgot…"

Henry burst out into laughter, "You would forget…. But imagine what Ryo will do when he hears about this!"

Everyone started to chuckle hysterically, even Renamon. "Now that will be interesting." The digimon said with a snort, sending the group into further hysterics.


	11. Chapter 11

**Well its finals week and I'm chomping at the bit to start my racing season, so yay for being busy. Oh well… I feel like if you aren't busy and stressed then you're not doing enough. By the way this chapter is a bit… risqué. I don't own digimon.**

A gentle wind swept through Takato's hair, playing with the young man's locks. His face was bathed in orange and pink light, and a slight smile played over his face as he watched the sun set.

To the young tamers right stood his saurian digimon, silently watching the sunset with his tamer. Both were trying to enjoy what remained of their vacation.

What was supposed to be a break from the stress of everyday life, the danger and toil, had turned into a miniature nightmare. What was supposed to be a sun-filled adventure had turned into chaos. However, Takato, just like everyone else he was with, attempted to brush all of those horrible memories to the back of his head.

"So what do you think boy?" Takato said with a sigh.

"About what?"

"I don't even know… everything I suppose." Takato let his gaze wander of the incoming waves, absent of any surfers or beachgoers, the water finally empty.

"Well there's a lot to think about everything…" Guilmon responded, "But if you're talking about the attack then… I don't know what to think."

"Me neither…" Heaved the young tamer, "I don't think there is anything to think."

"And that's not such a bad thing at all."

Takato shrugged at his digimon's insight. "I still would like to know why it happened though… I want to know why all those people and digimon had to die."

"Well let's find out then… sticking our noses where they don't belong is our specialty after all." Guilmon said, looking up at his tamer.

"Sounds like a plan." Takato said, and nervousness flew through the teen's body like electricity. "I just want to talk to Henry first before we do anything. His opinion is always worth getting…"

"Takato I see what you're saying but… no." The crimson eyed boy sat with across from Henry, the two boys and their digimon sitting at a small table outside of the coffee shop on the ground floor. "Normally I would agree with you that we should do a little bit of digging and see if we can help in our own way but… this is different."

"How so?" Takato asked, raising an eyebrow and taking a drag from his bottle of juice.

"Takato people died from this attack… Sure when we fought the d-reaper there was a lot of property damage but no one died. The D-reaper, despite what it did to Juri, did not mean to hurt or kill anyone."

The blue haired Chinese boy watched Terriermon and Guilmon play with a little Thai girl, the toddler giggly amiably, for a bit before continuing.

"I want to see justice done as well, but this attack was meant to maim and kill people and digimon. The digimon we've battled before wanted to destroy our digimon, and we destroyed them… But all of the digimon we've met before seem to have no drive to take a human life. When a digimon is deleted their data becomes part of the other digimon, and after a while balance is restored. Humans don't exactly behave the same way…."

Takato nodded, "I know but I just feel like we should do something to help… After all, we are the reason digimon have started to come to our world."

"We could offer our services to the government but I just feel like that wouldn't go well…" Henry frowned, staring into his drink.

"Don't we have some sort of digimon task force… I've heard about the American's having one." Takato spun his glass juice bottle idly on the table, eyes locked on the tamer across from him.

"I've heard about these units as well, I believe that our government has several tamers working with Hypnos and the American military has a black ops unit of some sort… Hypnos is sort of the controlling body regarding digimon as far as I know. This attack is something totally off Hypnos's radar though." Henry shrugged, taking a sip from his own drink.

"Well what about the Americans? We are in the United States aren't we?"

"I haven't been over to the plaza since it happened… I haven't really felt a need to go back there." The blue haired boy pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, raising an eyebrow at it before shoving the device back into his pocket, "But all in all I think this is something we need to let the authorities handle. I agree with you, I want to do something. But this is something way different than what we've handled before…"

"Your right, as always… I just feel so useless." Takato's shoulders fell, and the teen finished off his drink.

"I'm sure we'll get involved in this somehow…. It's kind of the way that the world works." Henry said, chuckling wryly.

Later on that night Takato lay wide awake in his bed, staring at the ceiling of his room. The young man had restlessly thrown his covers to the floor hours ago, and was now covered by enormous, soft pillows. Snorting in annoyance, Takato leaned over to his nightstand and grabbed his cell. Anxiously he tapped out a message, _Still up?_, and sent it off to a room a few doors down.

Quicker than lightning Takato's screen lit up, the response reading _Duh._

Needing no more bidding, Takato slid out of bed and made his way down the hall, making sure to grab his card key on the way out. But before he could even close the door Takato felt someone grab his hand, and the young boy was practically dragged down the hall.

Rika quietly slid the door open, peeking her head inside to see if she had woken Renamon. She was wearing the same underwear from earlier in the morning, and Takato felt himself blush a bit when he realized that he too was wearing little more than boxers.

Slowly Rika opened the door a bit more, and led Takato inside. Letting the door swing shut on it's own, the digimon queen lay down on her bed, flipped over on her back on motioned for Takato to lay down next to her.

The teen obliged, and Rika lost no time in snuggling up against the teen, Takato's heart fluttering as her skin pressed up against his. Takato wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, pulling her warm body closer into his. Rika slowly scooted upwards and kissed the bottom of Takato's jaw, and then started to nuzzle at the young tamer.

Takato sighed in pleasure as Rika rolled on top him, the young man matching the wicked look in the ice queen's eyes. Rika started to kiss Takato's neck, and the teen gasped slightly as he felt her teeth nip at him.

The young tamer let himself slide slowly into ecstasy, smiling widely as he watched Rika wave her ass around in the air. Takato put his hand under Rika's chin and brought her face up to his, and slowly the young man slid his eyes shut as Rika caressed his lips with hers.

Takato pushed his lips up into Rika's, kissing the girl eagerly. Slowly Takato rolled on top, his naked chest rubbing up against Rika's naked stomach and lace-covered breasts. The young man felt his erection growing in his boxers, throwing a haze over his decision making capabilities.

The teen let his hands explore the girl underneath him as he felt her hands explore him. Takato felt her hands sweep over his biceps and then down to his pecs, and the young man could swear he felt Rika giggle through their kiss. Takato let his own hands wander over Rika's firm sides and stomach, brushing over the lace of her bra.

Without saying a word Rika pushed up against Takato and separated her lips from his. With hooded, lust filled eyes Rika looked at Takato as she unbuckled her bra and threw it to the floor next to her bed. She then pulled Takato back down on top of her, and the young man shuddered as he felt Rika's erect nipples against his chest, her tongue playing over their lips as they kissed.

Without meaning to Takato brushed his throbbing member, still pent up in his boxers, over Rika's panty covered crotch. The two teens started to rub together, both of their brains clouded by sexual desire. Takato could feel his hardened dick rubbing up against Rika's mound, the young girl's kisses getting sloppier and sloppier as her panties started to get wetter and wetter.

Out of pure lust Takato started to rub faster and faster, Rika's fingernails started to dig into his back as the young girl thrusted back. Suddenly, Rika moaned through their kiss and thrust her wet crotch up against Takato's erect member. She then collapsed into her bed, gasping as her lips separated from Takato's.

Rika looked up at Takato with her dark eyes, a slight blush coming over her cheeks as Takato smiled down at her. "Wow… good job gogglehead… That was one of the best one's I've ever had."

Takato raised an eyebrow, Rika giggling up at the sweaty teen. "I came you dork…"

"Ohhh!" Takato said as comprehension dawned on him, and he slowly let his jaw drop. "Wait… I made you…"

Rika winked up at the young man , and Takato fell down next to his girlfriend as she pulled him closer. "Sooo I'm guessing that's good…" Whispered Takato as Rika snuggled deep into him, nuzzling the young man.

"Very… Takato I don't know what it is but I'm so damn comfortable with you…" Rika kissed Takato's naked chest and smiled up at him before continuing, "You're a guy so I don't expect you to know this but… almost all girls get really nervous when it comes to doing stuff like this for the first time. But with you… I'm not nervous. I feel safe…"

Rika yawned and snuggled in closer to Takato, the young man enjoying the warm feeling spreading throughout his body. He felt Rika stir, and suddenly he felt her lips on his. Her kiss was gentle this time, and the young girl sank back down to cuddle with him again.

"So… do you think you'll be able to sleep now?" Rika whispered.

"I imagine I might be able to…" Takato said, sliding his eyes closed, "What about you?"

Rika simply hummed in response, and Takato pulled the digimon queen in closer. _I never thought I would hear those words come out of Rika's mouth… but then again with the way things have been going, it's nothing new… _Takato mused, _but hell, I'm just glad she's mine!_

Takato drifted off to sleep, his restless mind now clear of all thoughts. Tomorrow was their last day in Hawaii, and he knew that he would enjoy it.


	12. Chapter 12

**RTA Vegas, and more events. Well, time for some plot. I don't own digimon.**

As Takato watched the sun set with Guilmon from his hotel balcony, another tamer and digimon duo stood on the porch of their own residence. Jeff had gone off for a sunset run along the beach, leaving Luke and the stony fox digimon alone again. Luke sighed as he watched the sun sink lower and lower in the sky, his digimon doing the same to his right.

The young man sighed and rolled his shoulders, watching a lonely surfer ride the waves. "Penny for your thoughts?" Luke murmered, playing with his watch.

"Huh?" The Renamon's ear flicked around, but she continued to gaze down onto the beach.

"What's on your mind?" Luke chuckled.

"Oh." The Renamon stood in silence for a moment, tail swishing idly, "A lot. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering… Anything bothering you?"

The yellow fox digimon shrugged. "Things are just… different."

"Hah." Luke snorted, and pulled the d-arc the Renamon had given him out of his pocket, "you can say that again…" He said, looking over the device.

"To be truthful, I am excited to have you as my tamer. I mean… almost every digimon's goal is to find someone to be their tamer. And it happened to me, of all mon." The Renamon cast an eye over her tamer, "Do you know what I mean?"

"I know exactly what you mean, I never, ever expected to be a digimon tamer. Ever. I'm still not used to it. I don't think it's hit me yet…" Luke smiled at his Renamon, "I mean we've got our entire lives to spend together…"

To Luke's surprise, the yellow fox digimon smiled back. It wasn't a wide, enormous smile; instead it was one of those tiny, warm smiles that communicated true emotion. This threw the young man off balance, and for some reason that tiny smile was taking his heart for a spin.

Quickly trying to regain his composure, Luke switched topics, "So why are you gauntlets black? All I've ever seen are purple gauntlets."

The Renamon raised her arms, looking over her dark gauntlets. "When you digivolve into a rookie in my tribe, you must defeat another digimon in battle. After completing that rite of passage, you are awarded purple gauntlets. I felt the need to be different so I challenged another Renamon from an opposing tribe. I won the battle… and was given these gauntlets instead."

"Huh," Luke grunted, "That's pretty impressive. Renamon are some of the toughest rookies out there." _Although that's interesting that she chose to kill one of her own instead of another digimon…_ Luke thought to himself.

Before the Renamon could respond Jeff staggered up onto the porch, gasping slightly. Luke snickered at the exhausted teen, "Getting a little out of shape?"

"You try running… on the sand…" Jeff said, still trying to regain his composure.

"Yeah yeah." Luke turned on his heel and led the way inside, the Renamon and Jeff following.

"I'm going to go take a shower mate." Jeff kicked off his shoes and immediately went down the hall.

"Well, want to watch a movie? There's not much else to do."

The Renamon raised an eyebrow, "A movie?"

"Ahhhm…" Luke rubbed the back of his neck, "Just let me show you…"

Luke led the Renamon to the living room, the space dominated by a large leather couch and a coffee table. Against the wall was a simple entertainment system, complete with a large flatscreen and a couple gaming systems. The kitsune stood behind the couch and crossed her arms as she watched Luke turn on the xbox, grab a controller, and plop himself down on the couch.

The young man patted the spot next to him, casting a blue eye up towards the stoic digimon. "You coming?"

Tenatively the Renamon leaped over the back of the couch, easing herself into the couch next to her tamer. Careful to keep her tail out of the way, she eyed the television screen. "So what is this movie thing? Is it like a television show?"

"Well yeah… how do you know about tv shows? Do they have tv's in the digital world?"

The Renamon shrugged, "In my village there was one, and every once in a while the screen would turn on and a show would constantly run for an hour or two, then the signal would move on."

"Huh… I honestly had no idea. Well a movie is sort of like a long show, they're quite entertaining actually. What kind of shows did you like when you got the chance to see them?" Luke flicked over to the Netflix account that was set up, accessing it's database.

"It doesn't matter."

This sudden wall caused Luke to raise an eyebrow. "It matters to me."

"Why?"

Luke sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. The Renamon's lack of a will to speak and express herself was starting to get frustrating. "Because I want to know. That's why."

The kitsune looked over her tamer with cold eyes, "Do I frustrate you?"

"No…." The Renamon raised an eyebrow as Luke looked at her, "Alright a bit. Just speak your mind. Please. I know that we haven't known each other for that long and I'm kind of new to this whole tamer thing but… There's no need to guard yourself around me. I want to get to know you."

Instead of being affronted, the Renamon dropped her shoulders a bit. "I apologize… it's just that Renamon are digimon of few words, and no one has really ever expressed care as to what I think… it's the way of the kitsune."

Luke smiled warmly at his digimon, and looked up to see Jeff enter the room. The teen put the controller above his head, and Jeff snatched it up. "Pick a movie mate, we're having trouble deciding." Luke then looked back at his Renamon, "I care."

"Well you know what we're watching then if you're going to let me choose." Jeff said with a chuckle.

Jeff ordered the Hangover and the movie loaded onto the screen, Luke grinning. "Of course."

"What can I say?" The emerald-eyed teen said with a shrug.

"And what's this about?" Piped up the Renamon as Jeff got up to turn down the lights.

"Well a couple friends go to a city called Las Vegas, which is an enormous party city. You'll see what happens… I think you'll find it funny." Jeff responded as he collapsed back into his spot on the sofa.

Two hours later Jeff was snoring contentedly, the trio on their second movie of the evening. The movie night has spanned late into the evening, and Luke, along with his Renamon, was starting to feel incredibly groggy.

Luke had found that as the Renamon that sat next to him grew more tired, her careful social guard slipped. She had become more and more amiable, and the pair had been constantly whispering back and forth ever since Jeff fell asleep.

"So do you want a nickname of some sort?" Luke said randomly, the yellow kitsune looking over at him. "I mean every other Renamon is called Renamon, so do you want something that sets you a little more  
apart, something that makes you more unique?"

The Renamon looked over the young man for a second before responding, "I suppose... What exactly so you mean by a nickname?"

"A nickname is something that people know you by instead of your normal name, it's generally something rather defining." Luke watched as the Renamon's long, serpentine tail started to gently wave, "I was just wondering if you wanted to be known by something other than Renamon."

The fox digimon lay down and pulled herself along the couch closer to her tamer, rolling over so that she looked directly up into his eyes. "alright I'm interested... How would we go about choosing a nickname?"

Luke mused for a second, "I suppose I could think of a couple, and you could tell me what you think."

The Renamon, her head resting against Luke's leg, stretched and yawned, displaying rows of threatening teeth, "sounds good... What do you have for me?"

"Hmmm... Lily?" The kitsune shook her head, "Kit?" Again the kitsune shook her head, the Renamon's eyes slowly sliding shut, "Well how about... Rose?"

This received a satisfied purr from the digimon, and lazily the kitsune opened one eye, "Yessss... That one. Rose... Good job..."

Luke couldn't help but chuckle at the Renamon as she yawned again, still purring, "What's so funny?" muttered the sleepy fox.

"You." Luke said with a grin, Rose reaching up and gently poking the young man.  
"I'm not funny... You're just being mean..."

Luke's sighed and stretched, raising his arms upward. "I'm not mean, your just funny. So you like Rose?"

The Renamon winked up at Luke, her single open eye sparkling, "I do... Thank you." with that Rose closed both of her eyes.

"Alright don't fall asleep yet, let me get you to bed first." Luke said, gently scratching Rose's stomach with a bit of trepidation. The sleepy digimon did not seem to mind, in her groggy state the Renamon actually started to purr again, "don't worry about me, I'll get up in a second... Where are you going to sleep?"

Luke shrugged, Rose curling up next to him, "I'll just sleep on the couch again probably." 

"What's wrong with sleeping in your bed?"

"Well that's where you're staying." Luke said, still gently scratching Rose's taught stomach.  
"What's wrong with sleeping in the same bed as me?" Rose murmured, and Luke detected a slight tone of offense.

"Ummm nothing... I just thought you would want your own bed and stuff..." Luke stuttered a bit, slightly taken aback.

"oh I don't mind, it's totally fine." Rose sleepily waved a paw at her tamer, "We're sleeping in your bed tonight. Deal with it."

Still shocked and slightly confused, Luke did not respond. Rose rolled off of the couch and onto her feet. The digimon grabbed her tamers hand and pulled him off the couch.

"Hey... Woah now, I'm fine, really." Luke attempted to protest as Rose led him down the hall to the bedroom.

Ignoring her tamers protests, the kitsune pulled back the covers on Luke's massive bed, collapsed onto the soft pillows, and rolled over to look up at Luke. "You coming?"

"I... Uhhhh... Yeah. Just let me go get ready." Luke ran a hand through his hair, unsure of what to do regarding the situation.

Rose crossed her arms, and yawned again widely, "fine, but you're not sleeping on the couch again..."  
Luke sighed in annoyance, the teen rubbing his eyes before responding... "Alright alright... I'll be back in a second."

The young man retreated to the bathroom, quickly brushing his teeth and dousing his face with cold water. Luke kicked off his boardshorts and pulled his shirt off over his head. The teen then pulled on a pair of basketball shorts, and looked at himself in the mirror.

The man Luke saw in the mirror was drastically different from the man that look had seen in the mirror scarcely a week ago. Luke's body was now covered in bandages and bruises, and the teen winced as he pulled off the old bandages. Mottled bruises and two large cuts covered the young man's chest and  
stomach, and small cuts and scrapes decorated his back.

Luke groaned as he ran a finger over his broken ribs, wraps still tightly in place to hold the fractured bones in place. Tossing the old, bloody bandages into the garbage Luke sighed mightily, and grabbed a new set of bandages.

"Hey..." came a sudden whisper from behind, and Luke looked into the mirror to see Rose leaning against the doorframe, sleepy concern etched on her face, "Are you alright? It felt like you were in pain..."

Luke shook his head slowly, "I'm alright... Don't worry about it. You sensed that I was in pain? You can do that?"

Rose smiled sleepily, walking over to sit on the counter next to Luke, "I can... We have a mental link now, and that link allows us to feel what each other is thinking, our emotions... Things of that nature."  
Rose grabbed the bandages and looked over her tamer.

"That means you can't lie to me..." the Renamon yawned, and Luke could not help but smile slightly. "Now let me help you put these on... I can't have a tamer who's in pain all the time."

Before Luke could utter a word of protest Rose began to wrap the badages firmly around the young man's wounds. Luke simply stood and watched as the yellow fox worked her magic, her paws splaying all over his body as she moved with dexterity.

"Impressive." Luke said with a rough chuckle, "Y'know... This whole partnership thing might work out."

"It's got potential." Rose said, and Luke detected a bit of happiness in her voice.

Luke was quickly re-wrapped, and Rose got to her feet. The yellow fox ninja barely came up to Luke's chin as they stood chest, Rose looking up at her tamer, and Luke matching her gaze. In the mirror Luke saw that her firm, round butt was pressed up against the edge of the countertop, and her ruffle tickled his chest.

Rose ears folded back against her head, and the pair stood together in silence, examining each other intently. "Well... Thank you." Luke whispered huskily, Rose nodding slightly.

Without saying another word, Luke slowly left the bathroom, leaving Rose standing there, seemingly lost for words or emotions.

"Coming?" Luke said over his shoulder, glancing back at his Renamon.

The digimon nodded numbly, and followed Luke back into his bedroom. The teen shut off the light and crawled under the covers next to Rose, the sounds of the rolling surf outside suddenly amplified. Luke took a deep breath, drawing into his lungs the smells off the ocean and beach.

Rose rolled over, scooting closer to Luke. The young man lay on his back, and he rolled his head to look over at his digimon. "Hey." He whispered lightly, and for some reason Rose's ears folded against her head again.

Suddenly at the back of his mind Luke felt strands of emotions and thoughts that were not his own. "Hey..." Rose grunted, and quickly looked downwards.

_Renamon don't stutter_... Luke thought to himself. "You alright?"

Renamon simply groaned in response, and Luke chuckled. "Something on your mind?"

Luke watched as Rose squirmed, and he felt more emotions pour through their mental link.  
"No, just... Ughh..." Luke couldn't help but smile at his digimon.

This Renamon was different from the way Luke had grown to understand them. When digimon had started to appear Luke had been around ten, and it was widely thought that the first Digimon to appear in this world was the Renamon that had appeared to Rika Nonaka, although that point was up for debate. That Renamon was a stoic, quiet warrior. She was a digimon of little words, and was only close to several people.

Yet this Renamon that lay curled up next to Luke was a bit different than the general perception. She had taken a day to loosen up but she was rather amiable. Displaying affection and care was also not a problem for the Renamon, even if she did do it in her own sort of way.

That and she had invited Luke to sleep in the same bed as her.

As if it was nothing.

Luke still didn't understand her reasoning but he wasn't about to argue.

"Alright... I understand. You should get some sleep... I know you're tired." Wordlessly Rose opened her eyes and looked across at her tamer, the teen staring back.

"I will." Rose whispered a confirmation, "Don't worry." She yawned widely, and Rose's feline eyes slowly slid shut again.


	13. Chapter 13

**Fluff n stuff. More plot later, I'm just developing a history between Rika and Takato. I apologize for my slow updating, I'm racing in three different series and I've got a job hahaha.**

The drone of jet engines filled the cabin, providing a pleasant, soothing hum to the somewhat boring interior of the 747. Takato sat at the seat closest to the window in the row, the other two seats of the business class row filled by Guilmon and Henry, Terriermon sitting on his lap. Flying was something Takato did not have the privilege of doing often, unlike Rika and Henry. 

So the young man had his nose pressed up against the glass of the window, marveling silently at the passing clouds.

Takato felt something rough and scaly press up against his left cheek, and he looked over to see that Guilmon had decided to join him at the window, and together the boy and his digimon pressed their noses up against the thick airplane window. 

Henry and Rika had flown to different locations around Asia and the rest of the world, and were therefore less fazed by the marvels of flight. 

Henry, dressed in black slacks and a silky purple button-up shirt, was typing away on his laptop, the young man anxiously trying to put a dent in his homework load. Rika and Renamon sat a row over. Rika also had her laptop out, doing the same thing as Henry. Renamon was idly flipping through SkyMall,  
attempting to amuse herself. 

"Takato, didn't your professor assign you work to do over break?" Henry said, taking a break from his typing to look over at his fellow tamer. 

"Well yeah, but I can always do that later." Takato said, shrugging. 

Henry sighed, and removed his glasses to rub his eyes. "Takato... This is later." 

Takato groaned, and pulled himself away from the window to yank his own laptop out of his backpack. "Well I've been resisting doing homework this entire trip so I suppose you're right as usual."

Henry shook his head before balancing his glasses back on his nose, and returning to his own work. "I just don't get you, how can you afford to goof off so much?" 

Takato chuckled, "It's the way I've always done things." the young man rubbed the back of his neck, and grinned sheepishly over at Henry. 

"I noticed." the blue haired tamer took a sip of the soda that sat next to his laptop, "So I've been meaning to ask you for this for a while... What's the whole deal with you and Rika? Since when did you  
two like each other? I mean you two have almost always been at odds." 

Terriermon perked up at this, the rabbit digimon always interested in good gossip. Takato mused for a second before responding, "I honestly don't know... Somehow throughout our adventures and constant fighting I developed a crush," Takato chuckled a bit at this, "I guess it just sort of happened!"

Henry nodded. "I guess I sort of saw the signs but I didn't bother putting the pieces together. What about Jeri? I thought you two had a thing."

Takato opened up his bag of cheap airline pretzels, the package exploding and throwing the food everywhere. Needing no encouragement, Guilmon immediately dove to the ground and began to sniff away earnestly. 

"Well then..." Takato stuffed the empty bag into the seat pocket, "I thought Jeri and I had something too but... That was a while ago. She hasn't gotten over what happened concerning the D-reaper, and I get the feeling she blames me for Leomon's death. I totally understand that her life is hard but… it just didn't feel right with her." 

Henry snorted at this. "I understand that losing Leomon was devastating to her but... That was eight years ago. I don't want to sound like a jerk but she needs to come to peace with what happened  
and move on. She can't keep living in the past, she has a life to live." 

Takato pulled an apple out of his bag, and began to munch on the fruit as he answered, "exactly, she hasn't grown up at all. She stills lives in the past, in those days. I've caught her talking with that  
sock puppet more times than I care to mention..." Takato shrugged, "I understand that her life hasn't been perfect but she's ignored all of the opportunities to better herself." 

Henry idly scratched Terriermon on his head, the rabbit digimon not seeming to mind in the slightest, "so you've liked Rika since we've been eleven? How did that come about?" 

"That's a good question." Takato said with a chuckle, "It just sort of…. Happened."

"Your such a damn gogglehead sometimes." Rika said from across the row, her cheeks tinged with pink, "Good lord." 

Takato grinned sheepishly, and the blush on Rika's cheeks intensified as she typed harder than before, still not looking at the boys. 

"Well you've managed to make Rika blush Takato, so I'm going to have to say you're doing a pretty good job." Henry winced as he received a solid punch from across the row. 

"Baka." muttered Terriermon from Henry's lap.

Takato smiled lightly, and dove reluctantly into his homework. But soon his mind drifted off to a time two years ago, during the harsh Tokyo winter... 

_It was the month of December, several days before Christmas in fact.__ While the holiday was for the most part a western tradition, many__Japanese citizens, religious or not, celebrated Christmas as well. It__  
__was a reason to be in a good mood, spend time with loved ones, and__exchange presents. Takato had been texting Rika an hour or two ago__but the girl had stopped responding, so Takato had let her be for the night. _

_Out of__boredom the young tamer decided to take Rika her Christmas present__early, since he would be busy with both working in the bakery and__spending time with his family in the coming days. Leaving Guilmon__behind, Takato threw on a jacket and scarf, and made his way through__the light snow towards Rika's house. The young man soon discovered__that the small amount of snow did not disguise the fact that it was__mind-numbingly cold outside, the mercury dipping well beyond freezing.__  
_

_Takato bent his head against the wind and continued onward,__determined to make his delivery. The snow started to fall harder and__harder, turning a light dusting into a blizzard. As he continued his__trek Takato saw a figure outlined against one of the railings that__guarded the top of a sea well. As he got closer he saw that the__person was a female, and that girl had her head buried in her hands.__  
_

_Takato drew closer and closer to the girl, and before he could ask if__she was alright he saw familiar bright orange hair._

_"Rika?" Blurted out the young tamer, the digimon queen snapping to__attention.__  
_

_As Rika turned to look at him, Takato saw through the snow that her__face was streaked with tears, the makeup she had only just begun to__wear now streaked, "What do you want gogglehead? Can't you see that__I'm busy?"__  
_

_Takato cringed a bit, fearing a physical attack, "Yeah sorry... I__just wanted to... Bring you this." he thrust out the poorly wrapped__present he had been carrying, Rika eyeing it before turning away.__  
_

_"Forget it; I don't need your gift. I'm not celebrating Christmas this__year." Takato heard Rika's voice catch.__  
_

_"Why Rika? You always celebrate Christmas..." Takato bit his lip__a bit.__  
_

_"What about your mom? And Renamon? Are they not celebrating either?"__Rika was silent for a second. _

_"It's none of your damn business__Takato..." muttered the digimon queen.__  
_

_Takato mulled things over for a second before he came to a quiet__realization, "Your mom left, didn't she?" Takato whispered, the words__hanging in the air with his breath. The young man was familiar with how self centered Rika's mother was at times.__  
_

_Rika seemed like she wanted she wanted to turn around and scream at__Takato, beat the boy into a pulp. Instead she just stood there in__silence, not moving or speaking.__  
_

_"I'm sorry Rika..." takato's shoulders dropped, the young man tucking__his gift under his arm._

_This was a new low for even Rumiko. While she did not entirely understand her daughter, at least she gave the semblance that she cared a little bit. Rika's grandmother had passed away several years ago, so Rumiko had essentially abandoned Rika at a special time of year.__  
_

_"You...you... You don't even know..." Rika whispered, her words__interrupted by suppressed sobs. "She went with...with... Some guy,__I... I... I... Don't even... Understand why..."__  
_

_Takato was shocked. Rika Nonaka was opening up to him. The ice__queen, rika nonaka. Sure they were incredibly close friends but this__was just... Different. No one had ever seen Rika cry. Ever._

_Gently, hesitantly, Takato reached out and placed a hand on Rika's__shaking shoulder.__  
_

_"Talk." This one word Takato uttered carried all of his capabilities__as a leader, all of his strength and reliability.__  
_

_Slowly Rika turned around, and Takato saw that her face was streaked__with tears.__  
_

_"G..go away...away..." Rika stuttered, weakly pushing on Takato's__chest, the young man standing firm.__  
_

_"I... Takato..." Rika stood in front of Takato, her head hung.__  
_

_Wordlessly Takato stepped forward, and wrapped his arms around the__softly crying girl. To his surprise Rika fit perfectly under his chin.__Takato realized that he had never been this close to Rika. Touching the digimon queen was like asking to beaten into a pulp, so a hug from Rika had always been out of the question.__  
_

_Slowly, as if she was unsure or what to do, Rika wrapped her arms__around Takato, and the young man could feel her arms shaking with the__rest of her body.__Gently Takato pulled Rika close, holding the girl close against the__cold. Snow swirled around the two teens, but Takato was only focused__on the girl gently crying into his chest.__  
_

_After a while Rika drew back a bit, and looked up at Takato.__"Y'know..." she whispered, "You're the first guy to hug me like that in a__long time."__  
_

_Gently Takato smiled down at her, and Rika smiled back up, a bit of__life coming back into her eyes. "I always thought that giving you a hug was a capital offense" Said the young man with a chuckle._

"_That's because you never tried." Rika shot back, sniffling and smiling._

"_Well look… don't worry about your mom. She cares about you a lot." Takato rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous habit of his.__  
_

_Rika sniffed and wiped her eyes, "your right, I shouldn't worry...__It's just... She's my mom, Y'know?"__  
_

_Takato nodded. "And she loves you just the same... Just in her own way."__  
_

_"i know... Most of the time." Rika sighed, and buried herself in Takato's chest__again, "Takato, could you do me a favor?"__  
_

_"Sure." Takato pulled Rika in a bit tighter, his heart beating a bit__faster.__  
_

_"Can you just hold me for a bit..." this request shocked Takato.__  
_

_"Y..yeah, no problem."__  
_

_With that the two young tamers stood in the swirling snow, comfortable__in each other's embrace. For the first time in a long time, one of__the tamers felt cared about for who she was.__"If you ever tell anyone about this, I'll kick the living crap out of__you goggle dork..." Rika said gruffly, breaking apart from Takato.__  
_

_"trust me, I know." the young man said with a grin, "Well here's a thought: come spend Christmas at my house. Just because your mom isn't here doesn't mean you can't celebrate Christmas. Henry, Terriermon, Suzy, Kazu, Kenta, Impmon, we're all family. Come spend Christmas with us!"__  
_

_Rika dug her foot into the snow, nervously twitching kicking away. "Would that really be okay?"__  
_

_Takato nodded his head, a hue grin spreading across his face,__butterflies flowing throughout his body, "Yeah, that'd be awesome! I__mean... Of course! Wait..."__  
_

_Rika groaned, "Just call your parents and come with me... For the love__of zhuquamon..."__  
_

_Eagerly Takato tucked his present firmly under his arm, pulled out his__cellphone, and followed Rika back towards her house.__  
_


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry about the long wait. Lots of RTA events, among other things. Lace Kyoto left a comment bringing up that Renamon explicitly says that digimon do not have reproductive organs. Well my theory is that seeing as Digimon are beings of the internet, they would possibly be updated with them. What's the internet filled with? Porn and 4chan. You put the pieces together. I don't know, just a theory. Your reviews are incredibly motivating, I promise I'll update again soon! Btw I love that Tamers stories are still coming out regularly.**

Light flooded into the otherwise dark room as a door was kicked open. Framed in the doorway were a young man and the nose of a dinosaur. The teen had bags at his feet, and his shoulders were slumped in exhaustion. Slowly pushing the duffels into the black room, Takato groaned.

"Guilmon, can you hit the lights?" The ever-energetic digimon snaked his way into the room and flipped on the lights, revealing Takato's dorm room.

In true Takato style the simple college abode was a pit: clothes, scraps of paper, books and Digimon cards were scattered all over the room. There were two beds, one with the covers bunched up in a sort of nest for Guilmon, and the other with the sheets simply thrown off. Boxes of merchandise were also shoved under the beds, products of the contracts the tamers had signed with several companies to use their likeliness's and names.

Guilmon opened up the curtains and slid open the window, nose twitching as he analyzed the smells that drifted in. In the meantime Takato pulled his shirt off, leaving on only a pair of sweats. The young man shuffled around the room, slowly getting ready for bed. It had been a long day for Takato and all of the tamers. The minute they stepped off the plane they were swamped by the press, cameras and microphones shoved in their face. The trio and their Digimon had been unwillingly shoved back in the spotlight. The teens tried to wade through the sea of people in an attempt to get to their waiting parents. After cryptically answering a few questions while waiting for their bags at baggage claim, each of the young tamers and their digimon fled the scene with their parents.

After spending the rest of the afternoon with his mother and father, Takato had taken the underground back to his school. Now it was around one in the morning, and the young man was exhausted. Takato changed into his goalie sweats and flipped his TV on, scanning through the channels as he climbed into bed. Suddenly Takato's phone vibrated and chimed and the young man grabbed at it. The screen read Rika, so Takato pressed the phone to his ear.

"Hey Rika, what's up?" Takato answered.

"Movie?"

"Sure." Takato said with a chuckle, "What do you have in mind?"

"Something with lots of fighting. The usual. Now get your ass down here."

"Mmmm I don't think so…" Takato growled lightly, "I think you just might have to come up here."

"Since when we're you ever demanding?" Rika snarled back.

"Well… I…" Takato stuttered a bit, "Well… Oh just get your butt up here, you know you want to."

"Fine fine…"

Takato heard a click, and sighed as he placed his phone back on the nightstand. A few minutes later the young man's door flew open as Rika and Renamon shuffled in. Both women looked exhausted, Renamon wasting no time by crawling directly up onto Guilmon's bed. The red saurian digimon did not mind in the slightest, in fact the way his ears perked up showed he was quite content.

"Hey you." Yawned Takato.

"Hey dork." Rika responded, putting the movie in Takato's Xbox, grabbing the controller, and jumping up onto the young man's bed.

"So what are we watching?" Sighed Takato, scooting over to allow Rika to lay down next to him.

"Who knows, Renamon chose. Should be good though, she watches TV all day like a lazy ass."

"That's interesting; I seem to remember you sitting around and watching TV while I go and work out." Snipped Renamon in return. The yellow fox digimon had been taken to the local gym by Rika's mother several years ago, and after some chiding and convincing the owner of the gym allowed Renamon in. Ever since then she had become a sort of work out addict, as expected.

"Oh like I care about being in shape." Groaned Rika as she hauled herself up onto Takato's bed.

"So since you don't care does this mean that I can stop working out now?" Takato grinned as he scooted over, allowing Rika to lie down next to him.

Rika lifted up the covers to look over Takato's naked chest. Gently she ran a hand down his chest to his stomach, and laid there silently for a moment. "I'm thinking no. You're still going to have to work out. Sorry babe."

"Oh I see how this works." Snickered Takato as Rika crawled under the covers with him, "Hey Guilmon, do you think you could possibly turn off the lights?"

The crimson digimon groaned in exasperation, turning on his back and looking over at his tamer with one yellow eye. "Oh come on boy, I'm already in bed and everything!" Takato protested.

Guilmon responded by producing a whine, "But I am too! See?"

"But I'm under the sheets!"

"I don't use sheets!"

Renamon groaned out of exasperation, and slowly she slid off the bed. She hit the lights as Rika pressed play on the controller, and everyone snuggled deeper into their collective beds.

"I feel like this is the first time we've been able to relax since the start of our vacation." Takato whispered to Rika about halfway into the movie.

Rika murmured in agreement, "Yeah no kidding… I feel like this is the first time we've just stopped and done nothing."

The couple laid together in silence, enjoying each other's company and warmth. Takato couldn't help but grin as he nuzzled the back of Rika's neck, drawing the girl in closer. A feeling of peace washed over the young man, something that he hadn't felt in a while. All was quiet and still. No one wandered to paths and streets of the campus, no wind rustled the trees. For once nothing was exploding, emerging, or breaking. Guilmon wasn't even eating.

"Well knowing us, we can't just do nothing." Murmured Takato, nipping gently at Rika's ear.

"Agreed. And seeing as you're our fearless leader, I believe it's up to you to show me the way." Takato felt Rika run a hand up his leg, and the young man let his fingers play over Rika's hardened stomach through her silk shirt.

The teen let his hands gently explore Rika's body, the young girl almost purring as Takato massaged her stomach and thighs. Something about Rika just fascinated Takato, the way her body felt, the way she smelled, even the way that she breathed.

Takato felt his heart beat faster and faster against his will, endorphins and adrenaline starting to rush through his body. "No one… no one has ever made me feel like you do," Whispered Takato, kissing Rika gently on the cheek, "I know that sounds cheesy but… well it's true. I can't describe it any other way."

Rika tilted her head back and looked at Takato with one violet eye, "Really?"

Takato nodded, and without any further warning Rika rolled over and kissed him. Her lips wrapped around his, and the young man felt warmth spread from the gentle caress downward. Takato couldn't help but sigh out of pleasure, the vibration spreading to young tamer his lips were locked with.

The young man felt Rika lift one leg, opening her body up to Takato, allowing him to get even closer. Takato welcomed the opportunity. This was the one opportunity the young man got to dominate Rika, and he was going to take full advantage of it. For once she was his.

Rika's slender body was now totally wrapped around Takato's, the young girls kisses growing more and more passionate. Passion started to cloud Takato's brain as well, the young man embracing the feeling euphoria. He had really had never felt this way before, and the teen was going to enjoy every second of it.

Yet part of him wanted… Even more. And he was going to get it. Takato ran a hand under Rika's silk shirt, the young girl jumping the gun and hastily tearing it off. Takato could feel the heat pouring off of Rika's body, and he was a bit taken aback by how eager Rika was.

Before Takato could react to Rika tearing her shirt off, she broke the kiss. "Well?" She gasped.

"Huh?" Instead of responding to his apparent confusion, Rika hooked a finger in the waistband of Takato's sweats and pulled them down.

The young man hastily kicked them off, and he felt Rika's hand brush gently over his throbbing erection, now set partially free. She gasped, and Takato saw a hint of color came to her face. Yet this did not seem to stop her passion, and Rika pounced on Takato yet again.

The young man could feel the soft fabric of Rika's bra, the warmth of her skin… it was dangerously intoxicating. And mixed with the taste and feeling of the digimon queens lips… Not good.

Yet Takato wanted more.

The young man unclipped Rika's bra, the young girl taking it and throwing it across the room. Her hardened nipples brushed against Takato's chest, and he felt another surge of pressure head down towards his groin. Rika let out a victorious growl as Takato's erection brushed up against her leg, the young girl now blinded by desire.

It had happened so quickly, and Takato couldn't help but feel a bit malicious. Rika wanted him right now more than anything else in the world. It was truly an evil and fantastic feeling that he never thought he would have.

Takato rolled on top of Rika, pulling her warm body up against his. With one hand he caressed the side of Rika's face, and with the other he wandered gently down her body towards her exposed breasts. Tentatively he cupped one of Rika's breasts, caressing it in his hand. Gently the young man pinched at the nipple, causing Rika to involuntarily thrust her body upward into Takato's.

Hesitantly Takato responded by starting to rub his hardened cock, still trapped in his boxers, along Rika's crotch, the young girl moaning at the sudden contact. The young man could feel Rika's soaked cunt underneath her thin volleyball shorts. Slowly Takato let a hand slide down from Rika's breast, past her tight stomach and sides, to the waistband of her shorts.

"Good boy." Murmered Rika through the pairs harsh kissing, signaling her approval of Takato's actions.

Needing no more encouragement, Takato clumsily grabbed at Rika's shorts and started to pull them down, past her soft thighs, down her firm legs. Takato's heart fluttered and pounded as his hand brushed over a thin strip of lace, and then over smooth, soft skin. The young man caressed Rika's butt, moving both hands down to her ass.

He instinctively pulled her crotch up towards his, allowing him to rub his throbbing cock over Rika's soaked cunt, her pussy barely covered by the lace. "Oh damn…. Fuck Takato…" Rika gasped and dug her fingernails into Takato's back, the pain only increasing the pleasure.

Takato wanted to give Rika more, and so slowly the young man slid one hand from Rika's butt up to the front of her thing. The young man could feel the heat radiating off of Rika's cunt, and Takato felt like Rika was practically begging for him to go farther.

So he did. Takato slid his hand down farther, and slipped the soft lace of Rika's thing off to one side. The soft flesh of Rika's pussy was now exposed, soaked and ready. Takato had not had much experience in this area, but that did not stop the young man from going on. Tentatively he slid one finger along the line of Rika's slit, and the girl let out a whining moan. Takato's finger slid over a bump and the hole, and gently he slid part of his finger inside. This drove Rika completely insane.

Pulling his finger out, Takato started to play with the clit he had just found, causing Rika to squirm. The one and only Rika Nonaka, the Digimon Queen, was completely subject to Takato's will. The punky, angry teen was now squirming, thrashing and moaning as Takato flicked and pushed her clit around. This was simply amazing.

Takato was totally wrapped up in passion and desire. This was easily one of the greatest moments of his life. So slowly, Takato started to tease the hole of Rika's cunt with another finger. The girl suddenly thrust forward, impaling herself on Takato's finger. Wet pussy was all around the young man's finger, the tight hole clenching.

Takato started to thrust in and out of Rika's wet, pulsing cunt, flicking her clit harder and harder. Rika shuddered again and again, both of the teens coated in sweat. Takato pumped Rika with his finger, the young girl slipping into a trance of ecstasy under him.

The young man's hand soon became coated in juice, and an idea came to Takato's head. It was an idea induced by pleasure and incredibly feelings. Takato took one hand and freed his throbbing cock. He then took his finger out of Rika's pulsing cunt, the young girl letting out a quiet, questioning moan. Takato answered her moan by guiding the head of his dick up against Rika's hole, starting to rub it around.

The teasing drove Rika to new heights. The finger teasing her clit worked even harder, and Takato felt just the head of his dick slide slowly inside of Rika. He felt her cum as he entered her, the feeling of wet pussy overwhelming the young man.

Yet Takato felt Rika's hand on his chest, and he looked at the young girl beneath him. "Not yet." She whispered, shaking her head.

Nodding in understanding, Takato ceasing his ministrations. He was mildly disappointed, but understood. Rika slowly kissed Takato, a passionate embrace of lips. Breaking the kiss, she nuzzled at the young man's neck, clearly at peace. "I know you want to Takato, and I do too but… just not yet."

"I understand babe…" Takato kissed Rika, enjoying the taste of her lips, "I really do."

"I think I came… Like eight times. Eight whole times. And they were huge." Rika giggled in spite of herself, nuzzling and rubbing Takato.

Takato felt a feeling of happiness and victory rush through him. He had made Rika cum, and damn was that feeling invigorating.

"You are by far the sexiest, greatest man alive. You may be a dork, but I'm so glad you're all mine!" Takato could not help but grin at this.

For the first time since the attack, he was at peace. As odd as that was.


	15. Chapter 15

**Busy as usual what with ALMS, RTA and the like…. Here's another chapter, sorry about the wait.**

A young man stood at a massive window, gazing out onto the expansive tarmac that acted as the habitat for airplanes of all shapes and sizes. Dark clouds filled the sky, promising rain. The curly-haired boy sighed, and pulled on his north face. To his right another young man with brilliant green eyes and black hair did the same, checking his watch.

"We should get going mate." Jeff said in a low monotone.

Luke nodded, and turned to the yellow Renamon that stood to his right. "You ready?" Rose nodded cryptically, choosing not to speak.

The two boys hefted their bags onto their shoulders, and Luke led the way to the security checkpoint. "So when are you and rose going to go get licensed?" Jeff asked as the trio joined the crowd of people flowing towards the exit.

"Licensed?" Asked Rose.

"Well when digimon started to appear to more and more people around the world several governments made it a requirement to licensed yourself as a tamer." Luke explained, "As a liescensed tamer you are afforded authority above that of an average citizen, so it's quite useful actually."

"Ohh... What kind of special treatment do we get?" The kitsune's claws clicked on the tiled floor. 

"I'm not entirely sure but I believe we have authority during wild digimon attacks, and I think that we have special access to databases and such that the government provides." Luke said with a shrug. 

"Interesting... And if we don't register with your government?" 

"You get deleted and I go to jail for a very long time." Luke said wryly. 

The trio made their way through the security checkpoint and out onto the main floor. Luke stopped, and turned to face Jeff and Rose. 

"Sooo I just thought of something..." the young man groaned, "My parents."

"You didn't tell them, didn't you?" Groaned Jeff, rubbing his brow.

"Maybe…" Luke rubbed the back of his neck as Jeff sighed.

"What? What didn't you tell your parents?" Rose looked from one teen to the other, ears flicking in confusion.

"I didn't tell you my parents about you." Luke said with a sigh.

"Well what's wrong with that?"

"Well becoming partners is kind of a big deal, as you know. And my parents like to know what's going on in my life, so not telling them about this could be bad." Luke furrowed his brow, idly playing with his watch.

"Would you be punished for not telling your parents?" Rose crossed her arms, dark eyes gently gazing at her tamer.

"No I won't be, I just should have told them…" Luke shouldered his backpack, and shrugged. "Let's just get this over with."

Luke led Jeff and a still rather confused Rose past the security checkpoint, joining the flood of people with ease. The young man took a deep breath, taking in the smell of fresh coffee and leather. This was where he felt at home, surround by business, coffee and an air of professionalism. The sound of shoes clicking on tile and the gentle murmur of people on their phones filled the air, everyone keeping to themselves.

The young tamer tightened the straps on his backpack subconsciously and made his way over to the escalator, Rose and Jeff following. Jeff was already buried in his phone, and almost slammed into Rose as she stopped at the foot of the moving stairs.

"You alright?" Asked Luke, turning to look at the scowling and apprehensive digimon.

"Yeah… just… yeah." Rose's tail flicked around in apparent annoyance, "Alright fine what are these things? Moving stairs?"

Luke couldn't help but grin broadly, "Yeah, they are. All you need to do is stand on one step and then step off at the end, no big deal."

Rose bit her lip and took several tentative steps forward, attempting to seem nonchalant about the whole ordeal despite her obvious apprehension.

As the yellow fox slowly edged forward Jeff mindlessly followed, still texting away on his phone. Luke stepped in front of Rose, and walked slowly onto the escalator. He felt Rose mimic his movements, and the young man chuckled as he felt relief flow through the mental link he shared with his digimon.

As the trio descended, two pairs of middle aged men and women came into view. Luke watched as they collectively gasped as he and Jeff came into view, and the young tamer squeezed the handrail in apprehension of what was coming. Luke elbowed Jeff and plastered on a smile as he hopped of the escalator, pacing over to his parents.

Wordlessly Luke's mom embraced him, the tiny woman wrapped all the way around him. Jeff's parents greeted him in the same fashion, leaving Rose to stand awkwardly in the back.

"How you doing buddy?" Asked Luke's dad in a low growl, hugging his son briefly.

"Good, you?"

"Well seeing as we thought you were dead, we're doing much better." Chirped Luke's mom, sniffling a bit.

"I'm fine, we both are. Don't worry." Luke hugged his mom again, grinning.

"We saw what happened on the news, it's a huge story." Jeff's dad came over to shake Luke's hand, the man just as gruff as Luke's father.

"Yeah… I imagine." Murmured Jeff, the young man returning a hug from Luke's mom.

"So I didn't get much, were you there when it happened?" Jeff's mom wrung her hands anxiously.

"No no, we were at the beach when we heard the explosion… honestly we don't know much." Luke smiled inwardly at Jeff's white lie. It would be much easier if their parents simply didn't know what actually happened.

"So you didn't see any of those wild digimon? Any at all?" Luke's mom was still shifting from one foot to the other, still clearly worried.

"No mom, none at all. We're completely fine. Really." Luke grinned and hugged his mom again, attempting to calm the nervous woman.

"So let's get right to it bud, who's this?" Luke's dad motioned towards Rose, who seemed to shrink at the reference.

"Ahhh…" Luke bit his lip, "Well…. Everyone, meet Rose." The young man reached into his pocket and pulled out his D-arc, "My partner."

Luke's stomach twisted itself into knots as he watched his parents jaws collectively drop for a split second. The teen cast a reassuring smile over to Rose, and the digimon straightened up with the encouragement. She took a couple steps forward and stuck out her paw.

"Mrs. Ekelstone, my name is Rose. It's a pleasure to meet you." Luke's mom, not missing a beat, quickly threw on a strong face and shook the digimon's paw.

"The pleasure is mine Rose." Luke smiled, and chuckled a bit as he watched Jeff collapse in relief. _Way to go Rose… _He thought to himself.

"Mr. Ekelstone." Rose shook Luke's dad's hand, the large man smiling back.

"Nice to meet you, I'm shocked you chose my son." Luke's dad chuckled as Rose frowned in surprise.

"Really? I mean, wouldn't-"

"He's joking Rose." Luke said with a sigh, grinning.

"Ahh. I understand." Rose folded her ears back against her head in confusion despite her affirmation.

"Uh huh." The young tamer went to stand by Jeff as Rose greeted his parents.

"Nice save by Rose." Murmered Jeff, Luke nodding.

"For sure, I'm kind of surprised myself."

Luke's dad turned to the boys, "Well let's get you guys home, I'm sure you're close to collapsing."

Jeff and Luke both voiced their agreement, and the curly haired teen motioned to Rose that they were leaving. The yellow kitsune fell into stride next to her tamer.

"So? What do you think?"

"Of what?"

Luke sighed, "My parents."

"Oh. They're nice, you were born well."

"Thank you." Luke smiled to himself at Rose's interesting compliment, "Do I ever get to meet your parents?"

"That is highly doubtful… My parents are a story for another time."

Luke felt suppressed feelings of regret and frustration coming through his mental link with Rose, so he chose not to pursue the subject. The group of parents, kids and a digimon made their way through the tunnel into the parking garage, chattering amongst themselves.

The young man watched Rose's nose twitch as they made their way into the massive cement garage, the digimon taking in the scents of her surroundings. "So what do you think of my home state?" Asked Luke, lazily mounting the stairs to the level above.

"It smells… different. It smells like all different types of rain, and of evergreens as well. There's a scent of pine in the air… Like freshly crushed needles."

The young tamer nodded, "Sounds about right."

"In case you haven't noticed, Luke's kind of a Northwest freak." Said Jeff.

Rose grinned as Luke rolled his eyes, the young man sticking his tongue out at Jeff in an immature gesture.

The lights on a 4Runner flashed, and a second after the lights on the X5 next to it ignited. The back door of the Toyota unhitched itself and rose into the air, the back of the BMW doing the same.

Luke absentmindedly tossed his backpack in the trunk of the Toyota, and the tamer ducked out of the way as his father closed it. The young man looked over at Rose and saw that she had her hips cocked in her traditional look of confusion.

"Oh. This is our car. The other one is Jeff's." Rose's mouth opened in a small 'oh' at the explanation.

"What did you expect?" Chuckled Luke.

Not speaking, Rose shrugged and stared idly at the ground. Luke sighed and turned to say goodbye to Jeff and his family. Or as they were constantly referred to, Luke's second family.

"Well it's not like we can't go 24 hours without seeing each other but for the meantime, I'll see ya later mate."

Jeff exchanged a hug with Luke and went on down the line, Luke exchanging goodbye's with Jeff's parents. The black haired boy and his parents piled into their car, and were off in what seemed like half a second.

"Well, you guys ready?" Mr. Ekelstone glanced from his son to Rose.

"Yeah." Chirped Luke, motioning for Rose to come with him and get in the car.

Yet the digimon seemed tentative, nervous, and unwilling.

Luke walked over to Rose as his parents got into the car, his head cocked in concern.

"Nervous?"

Rose shook her head but stared at the ground nonetheless, refusing to meet her tamer's eyes.

"Look… I know this is new and kind of rushed but everything will be fine. I promise." Luke stepped closer to his digimon so only she could hear.

"Yeah." Rose snapped her head up and plastered on her normal, fixed face.

The digimon paced past her tamer and climbed into the car, Luke rolling his eyes and following his digimon.


	16. Chapter 16

**Here's another plot chapter, enjoy! Btw thanks for the reviews as always, they are highly motivating as usual. Feel free to post up any flames or simple suggestions, as long as they contain something that I can improve on.**

Chapter 16 - Six months later

Cold, stinging rain was soaking Tokyo an indeed much of Southern Honshu. Wind whipped the freezing water around, throwing it up against windows, buildings, streets and people with ferocity. The bustling city was soaked to the bone. However, this did not stop the flow of people from going about their daily business. Cars still swerved through traffic, and the numerous pedestrians were bundled up in scarves and jackets in vain attempts to guard against the harsh weather. Case and point was a young man sitting at a noodle bar, idly sipping on a beer and swirling noodles around in a bowl. To his right sat a crimson digimon, one that looked like a small red dinosaur. This digimon was eagerly eating his way through a large plate of Pad Thai, a specialty of this noodle bar. The young man sighed, rain pounding of the sun shade over his head.

"It's been like this for a week now... A whole week!" Grumbled the owner of the bar to the young, brown haired teen.

"I know, this is terrible... It's the worst I've ever seen it." Takato murmured back.

"Your telling me kid... And with all the lone digimon wandering around, this has come to be one hell of a winter."

"Wait, there are wild ones wandering around?" Takato perked up at this, his red eyes growing sharp.

"Yeah haven't you seen?" the gruff old man indicated a group of Harpymon and Dogumon wandering around, hissing and growling at passersby, "They've been here for a week now, it's like they're casing the area."

Takato watched the group of digimon slunk away into an alley, "And no one has tried to take them out?"

"There's too many... I'd say there are about fifty wild ones wandering around this area. That's way too many for any one tamer to take on." the old barman shrugged, and wandered off to the back.

"Fifty..." murmured Takato to himself, knitting his brow in worry.

This was just too much like Hawaii. Large groups of unfriendly wild digimon wandering the streets... This was not normal in any way. It had been six months since the attack in Hawaii, and a nervous knot had been growing in Takato's stomach for some odd reason since he had gotten back.

Of course no one knew or would say anything about the Hawaii event. The authorities simply congratulated the tamers profusely for their efforts, claiming that they were heroes and saved the day. While the appreciation of the Hawaiian government and the Japanese authorities was genuine, the fact that they really knew nothing about the attack was highly confusing to Takato.

This was just too weird. Takato pulled out his cellphone, and flipped through his directory until he found the number for a man who could actually answer the young man's questions. Pressing dial, the young tamer pressed his phone to his ear.

"Yamaki?"

"Takato... I wasn't expecting a call from you... What do you need?" the leader of Hypnos sounded as gruff as usual, his demeanor not changing with age.

"Well there are…"

"Groups of wild digimon everywhere. I know." Yamaki cut off Takato, and the tamer could hear clicking on the other end of the line, "They're more restless today than usual. To tell the truth we've been waiting for you and the rest of the crew to get back to make a move on them... That is, if you're interested."

"I am interested." grunted Takato, taking a sip from his beer.

"Excellent. The leader of the task force will meet you in the park, along with the rest of you're... People." Takato heard the phone line go dead, and he sighed.

"Or don't let me say anything." Takato groaned and pushed himself to his feet.

"C'mon boy, let's go to the park." Guilmon lifted his head out of his plate, and moaned.

"But Takato... I'm not finished."

Takato bit his lip, "Sorry boy, but it looks like we've got an appointment to keep all of a sudden."

Takato pulled his collar up tight, flipped up his hood, and led his digmon out into the torrential rain.  
The young man navigated his way through the maze of streets and people, trying to avoid cars and bikes. He was quickly soaked, despite his waterproof jacket. The rain whipped up against any exposed skin, and Guilmon let out a low whine, "Takato... Can we just go home?"

"Not right Guilmon, we've got to go to the park, we're meeting up with everyone."

"But why?" Guilmon shook the rain off his head for the third time since they had left the bar, his massive reptilian ears smacking his wet face.

Before he could answer Takato heard the clack of claws on pavement, and the claws sounded much too big to be Guilmon's. Takato felt a massive presence behind himself, and the teen tensed involuntarily. "Hey kid."

Takato turned on his heel slowly, and clenched his hands as he came face to face with a massive dobermon. Drool dripped from the digimon's exposed teeth, slopping down onto the pavement below. Hot, putrid breath tousled Takato's hair, and the young man heard Guilmon unleash a menacing snarl.

"You one of those tamers?" The Dobermon started to circle around Takato and Guilmon, its nose twitching as it took in their scents.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Takato pushed out a small smile.

The massive beast snorted behind the young tamer, "Well look at you… and your little pet too," The Dobermon moved so that it's face was inches from Takato's, "You going to delete me?"

"No… why would I do that?"

"Because that's all that you do." Takato could see every drop of rain sliding down the Dobermon's massive maw, and he was constantly being blasted by the dogs foul breath.

"Not really… You're not hurting anyone." The Dobermon snorted at that.

"When has that ever stopped anyone?" The massive digimon suddenly flicked it's gaze to the left.

Quick is lightning he snatched a young man police officer by the arm with his teeth and threw the shocked man to the ground. Before Takato could do anything the dog raised one of its massive claws and squashed the man's head, blood and brains suddenly mixing with the puddles of rainwater.

Takato could not find his voice, and he felt the bottom of his stomach drop out. What had just happened?

"How about now tamer?" Snarled the Dobermon, and without warning the digimon pointed his head towards the pouring skies, "Schwartz Strahl!"

A beam of energy rocketed towards the clouds. The Dobermon grunted as Guilmon slammed into him, the crimson reptile intent on protecting his tamer. But before Takato could digivolve a blast of warm air knocked him onto his back.

Takato raised his head to see buildings suddenly become engulfed in a wave of flames.

The young man could not move, speak, or react in any way.

All he could do was watch.

Watch as buildings crumbled and people vaporized right before his eyes.

As innocent children were hurled into the air, their clothes torn off by the sheer force of the explosion, their skin turning into charred scabs.

As buildings fell in on their residents. As people screamed as one.

Takato could only watch as his nightmares came true.

His ears were ringing, and the young tamer felt warm liquid running down his face and chest.

But Takato did not need to hear.

With trembling hands the young man withdrew a card from his belt and slid it through his digivice.

Rage and powered flowed through Takato's body. He felt himself merge with Guilmon, data and flesh becoming one. Their anger, horror, and drive to protect became one.

Honor did not matter anymore. It was past the time for forgiveness. All that really mattered to Takato was the blinding white power of revenge.

As Takato reared his now massive, armoured head, he took in his surroundings. There was nothing left.

No one was left to save.

All that mattered was avenging those who had been alive mere seconds ago.

"Well this is-" Before the Dobermon could even finish his sentence Takato had seized the beast by his head and lifted him off the ground.

As Gallantmon both Takato and Guilmon squeezed, feeling no remorse whatsoever.

They felt no regret, no sadness as they felt Dobermon's skull collapse under the pressure of their grip.

The pair did not even flinch as they felt the vestiges of life flow out of the digital beast.

All that mattered was deleting every single digimon that was part of this sin.


	17. Chapter 17

**Not one of my better chapters. More fighting to come later. **

Henry sat on the steps of a covered walkway that snaked its way through his childhood park. It had been many years since he first met Takato and Rika here, and this park had sort of become their own. They knew every nook and space, and could disappear with ease. But now the foliage was soaked with rain, and a biting wind wound its way through the trees.

Henry had been instructed by Yamaki to meet with Rika, Takata, Kazu and the others here for some sort of meeting. As usual Yamaki had been incredibly cryptic, not really giving any details. So now Henry sat in the park, early as usual, and waited for everyone else to show up. Terriermon was deep inside Henry's backpack, trying desperately to avoid the cold and rain. Henry himself wore an orange jacket in place of his usual vest.

Terriermon crawled out from the backpack beside Henry, and the young man looked over at his digimon. "What's up?"

"Anybody here yet?" asked the digimon, shivering slightly.

"Nah not yet... I'm sure this rain isn't helping." Just as Henry finished his sentence a black suburban pulled up, and Kazu, Kenta and Ryo jumped out. Following them was an elderly man. He wore a black overcoat and a fedora, and walked with a calm demeanor. Henry sighed inwardly. Of course there was some weirdo trying his best to look like a member of the yakuza elite.

Rain began to form splotches on the other tamer's clothes as they closed the doors on the suburban, and soon rain was falling from the old man's hat. Raising a questioning eyebrow, Henry shouldered his backpack as Terriermon climbed inside. Something was wrong, he could sense it. Ryo did not have his usual grin plastered on his face, and Kazu had not greeted Henry with some sort or lame sexual joke.

"Henry!" Ryo stalked through the rain, and the young man stood up to meet him, "I'm not entirely sure what's going on but we need to go with him. Something's going on..." the Digimon King cocked his head towards the man that stood next to the black SUV.

Henry sighed. By now the young man was used to mysterious people in black cars summoning him away for 'Business'. He stood and followed Ryo to the car, and wordlessly the group jumped back into the car. Henry slid into the back next to Kazu and Kenta. The pair silently greeted him with a nod. Something was seriously wrong.

"We're going downtown; you all need to see something." A sudden growl came from the driver's seat of the car.

"Wait what?" Henry leaned forward, a bit confused.

Instead of responding the man simply grunted, and Ryo looked back, shaking his head. This man, this situation, this entire situation, was seriously weird.

"What about Rika?" whispered Henry to Kenta, and the young man simply shrugged.  
"I think she's already downtown, but who knows. She won't respond to texts or calls."

Henry sighed and leaned back into the leather bench seat of the SUV. Of course this day couldn't be normal. Nothing was normal anymore. There always had to be some amount of mystery and intrigue.  
Terriermon poked his head out of Henry's backpack and took a look around. The digimon crawled out of the bag and looked out of the window to see Guardramon flying right next to the speeding car, the massive digimon braving the rain.

"Hey old man, where we goin?" Chirped the rabbit digimon suddenly, startling Henry.

"Downtown." Came the same cryptic reply, the man hardly acknowledging Terriermon's brash comment.

Henry smacked the rabbit digimon upside the head, snarling quietly.

Terriermon cast a scowl up at his tamer, and immediately began to pout. Henry rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut. For some reason it seemed that speaking was for forbidden. The car exited the wangan and merged into the city streets of an older part of Tokyo.

The road was narrow and crowded, cars mixing with bikes and other pedestrians. Guardramon drew stares as he floated along behind the suburban, the massive digimon lamely attempted to apologize to passersby as he wound through the city streets.

Henry watched as the man drove the car deeper and deeper into the heart of Tokyo, the road now no longer car friendly. The man suddenly pulled the car over to the side of the road, and hung some sort of sign from the rear view mirror. Kazu nudged Henry out of the suburban before the young tamer got a good look at the sign, and Henry snatched up his backpack as he slid out onto the sidewalk.

But before the young man even got a chance to take in his surroundings, something in the air changed. All of a sudden the freezing rain a whispering wind stopped mattering. The constant bump of shoulders against Henry ceased to matter.

The air itself seemed to disappear for a split second.

And as suddenly as everything froze, the world violently came back to life. A thunderous sound filled the air. It was not a roar or a scream. All that could describe the sound was that it was caused by an explosion.

This Henry knew.

The young tamer tensed almost subconsciously, a thousand thoughts running through his head.

Not again… Please.

Not again.

The young man spun and watched as orange flames arched into the air, and with those angry flares came a shockwave. It tore into the environment before anyone could react, Henry included.

To his left and right people, buildings, shops, everything, disappeared.

The Suburban in front of him was thrown onto it's side, and Henry was knocked to the ground. He winced as he felt his body smash into the soaked concrete, water splashing up all around him.

The young tamer saw Ryo and his digimon slam into the ground along with Kenta, the tamer's digimon flying through the air.

Henry knew he needed to react. This was a survivable situation.

He just needed to move.

A dull ringing filled Henry's ears, rendering him temporarily deaf. All around him were clouds of steam, the rainwater vaporized by the extreme force of the explosion.

The young man's gaze fell onto his backpack, and a single thought made itself paramount in his brain.

Terriermon.

Slowly Henry planted one hand on the ground. Then he positioned himself with the other.

From there he shakily got to his knees.

One foot met the ground.

Then the other.

Henry staggered over to his backpack, and to his immense relief his small, rabbit digimon crawled out from the ravaged knapsack.

The young tamer attempted to say something, but found that he could not bring himself to form words.

And for the first time he raised his head and looked around.

No longer was this place downtown Tokyo.

It seemed as if the ancient city had been remodeled by Satan himself.

Everything was burnt or burning. Almost nothing was in its original state. Henry felt a lump form in his throat as his eyes wandered over blackened masses, and the young man did not let himself hazard a guess as to what they were.

Nothing was recognizable anymore. The SUV they had been riding in had flames licking at its frame, the car pitched on its side.

Kazu, Ryo, and Kenta had staggered to their feet with their respective digimon. There was no sign of the old man that they had came with, but that did not bother Henry terribly.

Henry spun around slowly, attempting to collect his thoughts and find the massive digimon that had been flying behind the SUV only seconds ago. He only saw destruction and death, no signs of life existed.

Slowly the blue haired young man scooped Terriermon up in his arms and shuffled over to Ryo, the teen attempting to get to his feet. Despite his throbbing vision, Henry managed to pull Ryo to his feet. The Digimon King's mouth moved, yet no sound issued forth. Henry shook his head sloppily, and pointed to Monodramon. Ryo wiped blood out of his eye and quickly stumbled over to his digimon, forgetting about his fellow tamer for a moment.

Henry felt something liquid and warm on his own face, and with a shaking hand reached up and touched his forehead. His hand came away coated in blood, sending a coarse shock through the body of the young man.

As the young man watched his blood run down his fingers one thought became paramount in his mind.

He needed to do something. Anything.

The young man tossed his head left and right, attempting to shake off the fuzziness and shock. Henry then raised his head and analyzed his surroundings.

Surprisingly all of his friends and fellow tamers were alive. They were all battered to some extent, but at this point everyone was standing.

They must have been near the epicenter of the explosion due to the amount of pure destruction surrounding them. Henry noted that the only reason that he was alive was due to the now flaming Suburban that they had arrived in.

Slowly the gears started to move in Henry's brain, the boy's calculating brain attempting to take in everything that was going on. The blast had been one of extremely high temperatures, judging by the incinerated bodies that were practically fused with the pavement.

Paint had been stripped off of cars, and the once bustling market was now torn down to blackened buildings. This meant that the explosives had been high grade, and that there had been a lot of them.

But who would do this? This was not the Yakuza's style, and there were not any current terrorist threats. Japan was just as isolated as America, and homegrown terrorists were not this effective.

"Henry… something's here. A lot of somethings." Terriermon looked up at his tamer with a battered look on his face.

"What do you mean Terr? What is something?"

Yet before Terriermon could answer Henry's question, the sound of metal dragging on pavement filled the otherwise stagnant air.

"Digimon." Terriermon's eyes became hard, and the rabbit digimon vaulted out of Henry's arms to the ground.

Down the street came a group of three Musyamon. One of them, the biggest of the three, dragged his massive blade behind him, creating the racket.

"Well that explains a lot." Snarled Henry, and the teen snatched at his digivice, "Guy's we've got-"

"Company." Finished Kazu, the young man drawing his own digivice.

Wordlessly Henry drew a blue card from a holster on his belt, mentally preparing himself to do battle.

"You ready Terr?"

The small digimon looked up at Henry over his shoulder, "Do it."

With a growl Henry slid the card through his reader, and almost instantly he felt that familiar tug and tear. He felt his flesh merge seamlessly with data, creating a colossally powerful beast.

The merging was over in a quick second, and Henry reared his now mechanized head. He could feel every gear and cog working with his thick muscles, giving him practically unlimited power.

Henry could feel his fellow tamer's biomerging all around him, and he could not help but grin down at the now halted Musyamon.

"Your lot really seems to have terrible luck when it comes to running into us." Henry and Terriermon cocked their fist back as one, and swung at the group of Samurai digimon.

The digimon leaped out of the way, stumbling as they landed. "On the contrary, this gives us another chance to strike all of you down!" The largest of the Musyamon heaved his blade over his head and charged at Henry.

Instead of moving to dodge the attack, Henry again brought his massive fist back. "Saint Upper!" He roared.

With all of his might Henry propelled his fist forward met the Musyamon's blade. The young man's attack shattered the massive katana with ease and continued on, tearing through the enraged digimon.

With a shriek the Musyamon exploded into data, and Henry pulled himself back upright. More digimon were coming down the street, attracted by the sounds of battle. All of them were massive beasts, hulking mega's and champion.

Yet Henry felt no pang of fear or apprehension. He had Terriermon safely with him. Nothing could stop the young man from protecting his friends.

"So you like killing humans huh?" Henry pointed a finger at the advancing group of digimon, "Well how about taking us on?"


	18. Chapter 18

The campus was a beacon of soft, golden light amongst the dark farmlands of the Palouse. Yet the radiant light was muffled by the soft white snowflakes of winter. The entire WSU campus was blanketed in banks of snow, turning harsh corners into soft curves and making the normally urban campus into a strange world.

The golden lights of the streetlamps and sky bridges were shrouded in white, the amber greenhouses bedecked in snow. Everything was covered by the peaceful white powder, from the observatory to the stadiums.

A lone figure sat on top of the castle like alumni center. A long tail waved gently behind the feminine specter, long ears and paws denoting her as a kitsune. The yellow and cream figure was clad in white scarf and black gauntlets. The long scarf was wrapped tightly around the neck to guard against the cold. Black eyes scanned the landscape, her nose twitching as she tried to catch a scent.

Snow was building up on her fur, catching on the ruffle. Rose sighed, flicking her ears around. There was a nagging feeling in her stomach, and something was making her heart race. Reaching into her gauntlet, Rose pulled out a cellphone and dialed in a number.

"Hey," she murmured, "I'm not seeing anything. Any luck on your end?"

"No." Growled a voice, "I'm still following my radar."

"Right." Rose hung up the phone, and tucked it back into her gauntlet. Leaping off of the building, the digimon phased away into the darkness.

A young man shuffled his way through the snow, clad in jeans and a white winter jacket. His black boots were covered in powder, and he had a crimson and white scarf wrapped loosely around his neck. He wandered around the streets of the campus, guided by a device in his hand. The screen glowed softly, highlighting the young man's face and hair. He had brilliant blue eyes, and a defined face. The boy groaned softly, and spun around and started to walk in the opposite direction again.

"Wait a minute..." he said with a slight snarl, and without lifting his head he looked up towards the tops of the buildings surrounding him.

"Dammit Rose." Luke growled.

Sure enough a black shape flitted around the building tops, apparently keeping an eye on the tamer.  
Rose emerged from the shadows of a nearby walkway to stand behind her tamer. "You called?"  
"Yeah," Luke said, not turning to look at the digimon, "its right above us."

Luke heard Rose take in a sharp breath, "But I looked up there!" she hissed.

"Well you didn't look hard enough... It doesn't matter." Luke whispered back, "Can you hit it?"

"Of course." Luke stuck his hands in his pockets and turned to look up at the wild digimon looking down at him. Rose ducked away into the shadows, and Luke let out a sigh, his breath hanging in the air.  
The young tamer watched as the shadow digimon tensed up, and then made a move to leap to the next building over. Yet halfway through its leap the beast let out a yowl as it was struck with hundreds of shiny diamond shards. It smashed into the brick facade of the building it was leaping for and fell to the earth, smashing through tree branches and the like on the way down.

The rogue digimon leaped from the clutter and landed right in front of Luke. It was a Lynxmon, and a very pissed off one at that. It's naturally occurring flames licked all around the beast, and it snarled at the tamer, not speaking.

Luke rubbed his brow, slowly unbuckling his card holder that sat on his belt. "Look," He growled, "I don't know what you're doing here, and I really don't care. Just leave the campus, please."

The lynx digimon started to circle the young teen, a low rumble coming from its throat.  
"Meddle not in my affairs boy, mine business is not yours."

Luke sighed and kicked at the snow, "Well your meddling in my business, so get the hell off of the campus. I'm sure you can do whatever the fuck you're doing somewhere else."

The young man felt his heart rate pick up as the Lynxmon refused to respond, instead opting to growl even louder. This digimon was not going to leave, so yet again Luke was going to have to take more drastic measures.

"Or not." Luke pulled a card out of his pack and ran it through his d-arc quick as lightning, and before the Lynxmon could even move Rose flew off the top off a nearby building and planted a solid kick directly on the digimon's head.

As a glowing Rose flipped backwards off of the now still body of the cat digimon, Luke murmured in surprise. That kick from the now power upgraded Renamon should have decimated the other digimon. Yet the lynxmon slowly got to its feet, and Luke heard Rose hiss an admonishment. Leaping forward, she drew back a now glowing fast and yelled "Power paw!" as her fist collided with the Lynxmon.

Her fist plowed straight through the digimon, turning what was once a solid being into data. Rose spun and stumbled a bit, the power from her strike carrying the kitsune forward. Luke grinned, and Rose turned to look at him as data swirled around her with the snow.

"That wasn't too bad." She remarked, sighing in relief as data flowed into the Renamon's body.  
"It wasn't at all, although it was good you finished it when you did. That Lynxmon could really take a hit."

Rose nodded. "So how many is that now?"

Luke pulled out his d-arc again and flipped through it, "Seven wild ones."

"We seem to be doing pretty good, despite the fact that you I've every wild digimon we run into the chance to run away." Rose grinned wryly at her tamer, and the young man shrugged.

"What's the point of deleting a harmless digimon potentially looking for a partner?"

"Data, experience, and a load of other things!" exclaimed Rose as she joined her tamer in the walk back to their dormitory.

"A load of other things? Well aren't you persuasive." Luke groaned, pulling his scarf tighter around him, "You know how I feel about battling and deleting digimon. And I'm not going to argue about it with you again, so drop it."

"We need all the chances we can to battle! Come on now, you know that." Rose thrashed her tail around a bit, the white tip whipping through the snowflakes.

"What part of were not going to argue do you not understand?" Luke sighed in exasperation.

"The arguing part. Besides, you know you want to go and find a challenging battle, I can feel how bored you get sometimes by how easy these digimon are to take down, I'm bored too!"

"Look, we're not going to battle every chance we get, it isn't right. Keep arguing and you're grounded." Luke pulled out his keys and let himself and Rose into their dormitory building.

"How on earth is it not right?" Groaned Rose as they climbed into the elevator.  
Instead of responding Luke simply raised an eyebrow at his digimon, who rolled her eyes.

"I only want to eliminate threats. I'm not going to walk around and slaughter innocent people, and the same rules apply to digimon."

Luke unzipped his jacket and pulled off his scarf, Rose doing the same.  
The digimon opened the door to their floor as they stepped off the elevator. Silently the pair marched down the dark hallway to Luke's dorm room and went inside. Immediately the young man pulled of his shirt and jeans, and put on a pair of white WSU sweats.

Wordlessly the young man grabbed his toothbrush and headed down the hall to the bathroom. There were the usual piles of garbage by the garbage cans, and the faint smell of vomit an vodka lingered in the air. Musing to himself, Luke brushed his teeth, shaved, and went back down the hall to his dorm room.

The light of the television was the only thing that lit up the dorm room, and Luke grinned slightly as he closed the door behind him.

"So I'm guessing that I'm sleeping in your bed tonight?"  
Rose rolled over and propped herself up on Luke's pillow, yawning as she pulled her tamers covers around herself.

"Nice try, get your ass up here."  
Luke sighed and jumped up onto his bed. He pulled himself underneath the covers and put himself flush up against the wall. The twin bed was much smaller than Luke's own bed, and many a time the tamer and digimon had woken up draped across each other.

Luke rolled over and silently watched TV with Rose, both of them starting to emanate feelings of content and warmth. Despite his groaning and initial reluctance, Luke enjoyed spending time with Rose in any way he could. The two were an inseparable pair now, having grown incredibly close over the past six months.

So now as both digimon and tamer drifted off to sleep, Luke couldn't help but grin a bit.


	19. Chapter 19

**Another battle chapter. Just a heads up, there is an American military base in Japan within minutes of Tokyo. **

A roar echoed through the devastated streets of downtown Tokyo, resounding off shredded buildings and bodies. It pierced the drone of the rain and wind, stopping both digimon and humans in their tracks. This roar was one of pure rage and hatred, one that exemplified pain and anger.

The maker of this terrifying sound was a towering white knight. His chest heaved with emotion, hands wrapped tightly around his lance and shield.

The knight was a gleaming pillar amidst the rain and destruction, glowing in almost heavenly manor. The pure whiteness of his armor contrasted with the crimson interlaced into his steel garb, making the knight seem like a being from another world.

Yet around the knight stalked demons, growling digital menaces with saliva dripping from their exposed teeth. They were giant dogs, skeletal and imposing. Their snarls and growls carried the deepest notes of malice.

Takato turned slowly, assessing each one of his targets. With a spin and lunge he struck one of the circling Dobermon with his shield, the beast yowling in pain.

As another Dobermon leapt at him Takato struck the offending digimon with his lance, running it right through the skull of the enraged dog. The digimon burst into data, encircling Takato and Guilmon's combined bodies.

Takato turned and dipped, throwing his shoulder into a charging Weregarurumon. He continued his tackle into a nearby wall, the wolf morph grunting as he made contact with the brick facade.  
Takato let out another roar and drew back his shield, and with all if his might drove it into the face of the Weregarurumon. The digimon's shocked face splintered and shattered before turning into data.  
Yet before Gallantmon could move and attack again, he was knocked to the ground by a Lynxmon, the digimon sinking its teeth into Takato's arm.

As one Takato and Guilmon roared in pain. The young tower rolled over so that he pinned the flaming digimon to the ground, and proceeded to pummel it with his fists.

Out of the corner of his eye Takato saw another Dobermon charging at him. Quick as lightning he picked up his lance and hurled it at the digimon. The feral beast let out a scream as it was ran through by the massive object, and it collapsed to the ground and burst into data.

Gallantmon's chest rose and fell as Takato and Guilmon sighed before springing to their feet. Anger still pulsed through their collective veins, blurring their vision.

A Wormon leapt at the knight in a feeble attempt to do some sort of damage, but Takato snatched the digimon out of the air and threw it down an alley with all of might, roaring in frustration.

"Oh my god..." Takato spun, surprised by a voice behind him that seemed idly familiar.

Rika and Renamon had just arrived at the scene of the attack, and were floored by what they saw. As takato watched Rika stand rooted at the end of an alley, he felt all traces of rage leave his body. The feelings of anger and a need for violence left him, instead replaced by a feeling of absolute hollowness.  
And a need to protect.

"Digivolve Rika, now!" he barked, snatching up his lance.

"Takato... Gallantmon... What..."

"NOW!" Rika slowly pulled out her digivice and with trembling fingers, ran a card through it.

In a brilliant show of light and data Sakuyamon appeared. Renamon's combat instincts took over now that she was combined with her tamer, and she attempted to steel herself against the awful carnage.  
"Ready?" Snarled Gallantmon.

Sakuyamon nodded, and Takato gripped his weapons tightly. More digimon were climbing out of the rubble, moving towards the sound of the battle.

Takato could feel Sakuyamon shaking next to him; he could feel Rika's stomach-churning fear and Renamon's shock. "They can't do it Takato."

Guilmon had just voiced Takato's very thoughts. Neglecting a verbal response the young man instead nodded his head and together he moved with his digimon to stand in front of Sakuyamon. Takato hefted his lance and shield yet again, hoping feverishly that no digimon would come at the pair Mega's from behind.

Takato tensed as he saw a massive digimon lumber into the alley in front of him. It was a massive saurian creature, blue with brilliant red stripes. Harsh quills flowed off of it's head, and crimson blood dripped from its jagged teeth. This sight made Takato snarl with malice, and he felt a surge of power flood through his body.

With a roar the massive Allomon took off towards Takato, lowering it's massive head. Two Harpymon took off in the wake of the Allomon, their shrieks piercing the smoky air.

"Final Elysium!" A beam of energy leaped out of Takato's shield a engulfed the charging Allomon, vaporizing the digimon into data before it could even let out a roar. The blast also caught part of one of the Harpymon, sending the digimon spiraling into a wall.

Yet the other winged beast soared into the air, dodging Takato's attack. "Wind Seeker!"

Grunting in surprise Takato moved to hoist his shield over his head to protect Sakuyamon, but he felt a burst of power come from behind him. "Crystal Sphere!"

Takato felt his and Guilmon's conjoined bodies became engulfed in the tingling power of a protective sphere. Shocked the knight watched the sphere grow, reaching up towards the Harpymon. Seeing that it's attack was having no effect, the digimon attempted to gain altitude and attack again.

Yet it's effort were in vain, and with a squawk the winged demon was entrapped by the sphere and burst into data. Takato smiled at this.

Rika and Renamon were back in the fight.

Takato looked down the alley in front of him and failed to see any digimon. "Where are Henry and the others?" He asked in a low growl.

"I… I'm not… s… sure." Takato sighed as he heard Sakuyamon's shaky reply.

"Alright. We're not out of the woods yet." Takato and Guilmon grimaced as one, shaking off the pain pulsing through their collective body.

As much as Rika and Renamon put on a face, Takato knew that this scared them as much as it did him. And he knew that the feelings of rage and anger he felt inside of himself were much different than the emotions being experienced by Rika right now.

She was too fragile for this still. Too sheltered. Takato wanted to tell her to leave, to whisk her away to safety. But he knew in the same breath that Rika would have none of that. She was a warrior, just like her digimon.

Takato could barely hang on anyways. In the back of his mind he knew he was running on adrenaline and instincts, fear driven from his brain. His instincts told him to keep fighting, and whatever brain power he had left he used to protect Rika.

The young tamer tentatively started to walk down the alley in front of him that would lead out onto the main section of the downtown market. In the back of his mind imagines and thoughts of what lay out there flourished, but Takato sealed those horrifying thoughts away. He knew that he could not dwell on thoughts like that, as they would eventually overwhelm him.

As Takato and Rika emerged from the alley, a hellish sight greeted them. There were practically no signs of the life that had been there literally minutes ago. Everything that was destructible had been obliterated. That included human beings, cars, shops, stands, everything. Human remains were literally plastered up against everything. It seemed impossible that something like this could happen. It was impossible. Blood pooled in the shallow areas of the main recess, intermixed with hollow shells of automobiles and bikes.

"I feel sick." Takato turned to see Sakuyamon leaned up against a building, her chest heaving.

Those three words were all she could manage, and Takato frowned internally. He was fighting to keep down his own bile, and the young tamer did not know what to say. It seemed like the digimon that were attacking people had disappeared for the moment, and Takato let himself relax a bit upon realizing this.

Yet just as the young man let his guard drop a bit, a faint thrumming filled the air. The sounds of Sakuyamon coughing and grimacing were slowly being drowned out by a deep roar that seemed to vibrate the very air. It soon became mixed with sirens, and the roaring of high powered engines. Takato shifted his gaze towards the sky, and through a gap in the buildings he saw dozens of black helicopters bearing down on his locations, flying at full tilt.

"Rika…." Takato pointed towards the metal birds roaring towards them, Sakuyamon following his pointing.

"No way… the army?" Takato could not help but break into a smile.

Rika was right, it was the army. Despite the carnage, people were finally coming to help. Takato felt his spirit soar, energy flooding back into his limbs.

"Come on, let's go." Takato hefted his weapons again and took off down the street, a startled Sakuyamon chasing after him.

"Wait, where are we going?" Gasped Rika and Renamon in one voice, catching up with the white knight.

"To find more digimon." Growled Takato.

This elected no response from Rika, and Takato honestly did not care. Takato sniffed the air, Guilmon's keen senses combined with his own.

"To the right Takato." Snarled Guilmon, and as one tamer and digimon spun. Two Bealzulmon held a young man up against the wall, the teen screaming and sobbing.

All around the digimon was a pile of bodies, the corpses torn in the most grotesque ways. Before anyone could say anything Takato grabbed his shield by the rim and hurled it down the alley. The flying shield slammed into one of the Bealzulmon, sending him careening into his partner. The young man slumped to the ground, rubbing his neck and gasping for air. With a roar Takato charged down the narrow street, his lancing sending out showers of sparks as it rubbed against the pavement. Behind him he heard a patter of feet, and the young tamer felt a light pressure on his shoulder.

Sakuyamon launched over him, twirling her staff over her head.

"Amethyst Wind!" Shouted Rika and Renamon, crystalline shards appearing and swirling around the Mega.

With a flick of her staff Sakuyamon directed the shards down on one of the enraged digimon, tearing it into shreds of data. Takato wasted no time in running through the second Bealzulmon with his lance, the demon squawking as his insides were torn asunder.

Takato clanked to a halt, and cast his gaze over Sakuyamon. He watched with pity as she stumbled over to lean up against a wall, dry heaving and hacking. This was tearing her apart, and Takato had no idea what to do.

But all thoughts were quickly pushed from his mind as the air suddenly started to shake all around him, and the white knight tilted his helmeted head to the sky to see a massive helicopter slowly fly over them, minigun on one side blazing away in bursts. Shells clattered down all around Sakuyamon and Gallantmon, the hot metal bouncing off of their armor.

"Takato…" The glanced back down to Sakuyamon, who pointed a finger down the alley.

At the end of it stood Japanese police men decked out in riot gear, weapons at their sides. One of the men stepped forward and pulled his helmet off, letting blond hair fall back into place.

"Your alright. Good." The man pulled out a cigarette and lit the offensive stick.

Instead of putting away the lighter he instead began to twirl it around in his hands, clicking it quickly.

"Yamaki." Takato had to force out that single word.

He had suddenly lost all of his drive. All of his motivation. He was drained, completely and totally. Takato could feel the contents of his stomach rise, and all of the energy fall out of his every muscle. His vision swam, and slowly the young man felt the digital parts of himself slide away, his body turning back into its own human self.

Suddenly Takato felt himself hit pavement, and his shadows overwhelmed his vision.


	20. Chapter 20

The blue glow of a television filled the small room, long shadows cast by the faint light. The only other source of light was a laptop that illuminated the scruffy face of a teenager, the stubble on his square jaw eerily glowing from the light provided by the screen. Stray curly hairs had separated themselves from the young man's disheveled mop, and were likewise illuminated. His hard blue eyes scanned relentlessly over the laptop screen, fingers tapping away furiously on the keyboard. The young man sat cross legged on one of the beds in the room, leaning up against the wall.

Next to the young man lay an elegant kitsune, her soft yellow fur shrouded in the blue light cast by the television. A soft white patch ran from between her legs up into an ivory ruffle of carefully groomed fur. Black gauntlets covered her forearms, the patterns on the gauntlets matching the black, swirling tattoos on her legs. The Renamon's black eyes were lazily hooded; the digimon only half watching what was on the television. Without warning she opened her mouth in a wide yawn, lips stretching back to reveal rows of long, sharp teeth. Ending her yawn with a whimpering snarl, the digimon stretching her long legs out beyond her tamer.

"Jeff's going into the military. He's going to become a Ranger." The young man reached up to rub the back of his neck, grimacing as he attempted to relieve some of the tension built up in his muscles.

"The military?"

The teen nodded, closing his laptop and rubbing his eyes. He tucked the laptop back behind the mattress, its traditional resting place.

"The Rangers are a highly exclusive group of soldiers that specialize in parachuting out of airplanes, as well as small arms combat. It takes a lot to be a Ranger." Rose nodded in understanding, glad that her tamer had explained without her asking.

"Why is he going into the service?"

Luke laid down next to his digimon, pulling the covers over himself. "He's always wanted to join up, it's kind of a family tradition for him. The family on his father's side has been in the Rangers since their creation. He's enlisting though, which is an interesting choice…"

"Errr… enlisting?" This time Rose chose to ask what her tamer meant instead of waiting for him to explain.

"It's a long story…. Tomorrow you should read up on the American military." Luke rolled his eyes sarcastically as Rose pulled the covers over herself, choosing to yet again join her tamer in his bed.

"Deal with it you big baby." Snapped Rose gently, smiling at her tamer.

Luke smiled back, astounded as always at his Renamon's actions. She was so incredibly different than what he had grown to believe Renamon were like. She was so amiable around him, cuddly even. In public she was the cold, calculating digimon that everyone saw every Renamon as. In the back of his mind Luke often wondered if other Renamon behaved like this in private, or if he had managed to get lucky.

From time to time the young tamer often felt that Rose had… feelings for him. He knew that she found him attractive for a human. Hell, Luke found Rose to be incredibly good looking. How could one not find any Renamon attractive? But sometimes Luke felt like Rose's attraction went deeper. He often caught Rose examining him while he worked out or did homework, and she would sometimes slip up and mumble random things if Luke made eye contact with her. However, the fact that Rose would spend most nights curled up next to Luke was an inadmissible indicator that the digimon had feelings for her tamer.

Luke would often struggle with this, just as he was doing now. He liked Rose well enough. But not in a romantic sense…

The young man brushed away the troublesome thoughts and rolled over to face the wall, lying back to back with his digimon. As Luke began to become absorbed in his own thoughts, he felt something tracing the scars on his back.

"I like your tattoos." Luke smiled at this, and he felt Rose's claw underlining each line of the expansive writing on his back.

"Thanks."

"How are your cuts feeling?" Rose's body was flush with his now, and Luke felt the digimon trace the scars on his side.

"Better. Thanks to you I don't have more." The kitsune chuckled at this.

"You were doing fine on your own."

"Was that sarcasm?" Luke rolled over and looked over Rose with a small grin.

"Possibly." The digimon gave her tamer the 'Renamon' look, that glare that was completely devoid of emotion.

"You loser." Luke smiled at his digimon.

He was used to that look. He knew Rose's every nuance, every way that she reacted. That was mostly thanks to the mental link that they shared, but it was partially because the pair spent every waking moment together. He knew his digimon like any tamer should.

Before Rose could respond a blue light radiated out from the desk at the head of the bed. Luke groaned and rubbed his face out of exasperation, Rose letting out a low whine.

"Maybe someone else will take care of it…" Whispered Rose to her tamer, the digimon sounding hopeful.

"Hah. Good one." With a groan Luke heaved himself up towards his desk, snatching the offending digivice that was emanating the blue glow.

"Big signature." He mused, squinting as he looked over his d-arc's blue screen.

One large blip was showing up on the digital radar, and the reading was showing to be around several gigabytes.

"Well looks like we've got to take care of this." Sighed Luke, and the young man shook the covers off of himself.

"Fucking shit…" Luke raised an eyebrow at Rose, the digimon pulling the sheets over her head.

"And since when do you swear?"

"Ever since wild digimon have dragged me out of bed!" Came the muffled reply.

Luke snickered and crawled of his digimon, stretching as he did so. The young tamer flicked on a lamp and turned to look at the giant lump under the covers of his bed. A wicked smile glancing over his features, the young man calculated out Rose's body shape and with a quick jab went under the covers and pinched Rose's ass.

The digimon yelped and levitated off the bed, snarling at her tamer.

"You!"

"Me." Said Luke, turning to go and open up his closet.

"You just wanted a handful, I see how it is." Said Rose through a yawn, the Renamon stretching and sitting up.

"In your dreams. Now get a jacket on, it looks like we've got work to do."

Rose cocked her head at Luke, "Why would I need a jacket? I have my fur, I'll be fine."

Luke pulled on a pair of white and grey ACU pants, "It's around ten degrees out there, and you're going to freeze your ass off if you don't put something on."

Rose frowned and pushed herself off of the bed, walking over to her own closet. Pulling out a pair of ACU's similar to Luke's, she also took a white jacket off of its hangar. Luke and Rose finished getting dressed, and prepared to head out into the night.

Spinning his lanyard absentmindedly, Luke shoved his digivice and modification cards into his pocket as he walked down the long hall of the dormitory floor with Rose. The pair rode down the elevator in silence, still trying to wake up. A blast of cold air greeted the tamer and his digimon as they stepped outside, Luke and Rose both exhaling sharply at the sudden temperature change.

Crunching through the snow, the pair made their way through the parking lot to a dark blue STi sitting on bronze TE37's. The car stuck out like a sore thumb in the parking lot, it's stance and brilliant wheels setting it apart from the collection of trucks and commuter sedans.

Luke hit a button on his FOB, causing the lights to flash and the locks to click on the Subaru. Rose pulled open the passenger door and tucked herself into the bucket seat, Luke walking over to the driver's side and doing the same. The young man pulled the green harness loosely over himself, clicking the five points together in the middle of his chest. Sticking the keys in the ignition, Luke slowly brought the car to life.

The young man babied the car out of the lot, careful to not allow the car to drift over two thousand RPM's. The exhaust growled as the digimon and tamer coasted along the empty Stadium Way. Rose leaned her head up against the cold window, her breath fogging up the freezing glass. Luke yanked his digivice out of his pocket as they neared the bottom of Stadium Way, glancing over the radar again. Flicking on his indicator, the young man brought his car to a gentle stop. A brief scan of the digital dash setup told him that everything was up to optimum temperature.

"Buckle up." Rose sighed and rolled her eyes as her tamer rammed down on the clutch and throttle, sliding through the gears as the young man made the boxer engine of the Subaru roar to life.

The blow off valve let off a sharp hiss, the turbo angered by the sudden intake of air. Luke brought the car up to sixth gear, setting the car to coast along at over a hundred miles an hour. 'Who wouldn't take advantage of a night like this' thought the young tamer as he tapped on the brakes, jumping on a smaller, rural road to follow his radar.

Luke ran the gears back down, the car slowing down until it ground to a halt several miles down the rural farm road. "Alright let's get this over with."

"Lets." Rose got out of the car and locked her door before she closed it.

Luke did the same, not wanting to make any extra noise. He led the way up the hill that his D-arc was guiding him over, taking large steps to gain good footing in the snow. The young tamer stopped on the crest, his breath pluming out in front of him in large clouds.

Before the tamer and his digimon lay a dark farmhouse and barn, the buildings neatly tucked away between two of the rolling hills of the Palouse.

"It says the digimon are here?" Asked Rose.

"Yeah…. Maybe they're after the livestock or something…." Luke frowned and crossed his arms.

"Well let's find out." Rose took off down the hill, the kitsune not making a sound as she glided through the snow.

Luke growled and crunched after her. As the duo got closer and closer to the farmhouse, a strange smell began to fill the stagnant air. It was a sweet, sickly smell, with a tint of iron in it.

"I think the wild ones found the cows." Whispered Rose as Luke came to stand next to her.

"Wild ones? As in multiple digimon?"

Rose nodded and pointed down. There were two different sets of tracks in the snow, one made by paws and the other by clawed boots.

"Good eye." Commended Luke, the young man glancing around, "Any thoughts as to where they are?"

Rose shook her head at this. "Look at the house though."

Luke squinted at the house, not finding anything out of the ordinary. Upon closer inspection one could see that the door had been removed from its hinges, and that several of the windows were broken.

"We have to go in there, don't we?" Whispered Rose to her tamer.

Biting his lip, the young man slowly moved his head up and down. Without another sound the pair moved slowly towards the farmhouse, the pervasive smell growing stronger and stronger as they drew closer. Luke slowly stepped up onto the porch and moved off to the left. He crawled in through one of the broken windows, his gut telling him that going in through the front door would have been a terrible idea. The young man's heart hammered in his chest as he explored the house. Everything seemed normal; everything was where it was supposed to be.

It seemed like the house had been simply abandoned, left to the elements while its owners moved on the another life. But something tripped in Luke's mind as he and Rose padded into the kitchen. The young man pulled open the door of the refrigerator, and what he found made him sick with apprehension.

"Rose."

"Mmm?"

"The food is still fresh."

Luke spun on his heel and looked around wildly from an exit as Rose let out a hiss.

There.

A back door.

Luke reached for the handle and pulled open the main wooden door. And standing on the other side of the screen door was an Angemon.

The head of the digimon was cocked at an odd angle, and its white amour was covered in bloody handprints. Crimson stains decorated the face of the Angemon, and its dead eyes seemed to look past Luke.

The young tamer rammed his hand into his pocket and pulled out a card and his digivice. Luke stumbled backward and ran the card through the reader, shouting out the name of the attack he had just bestowed upon Rose.

"Desolation Claw!"

Rose swung her outstretched claws towards the Angemon. As her attack made contact, raw power flowed out of her body. The entire back section of the farmhouse was torn away, shingles, planks, and kitchen implements vaporized.

"Get out into the open! Now!" Luke scrambled out of the kitchen and ran down the main hallway towards the front door.

But waiting for him a snarling Dobermon. The beast lunged at the tamer, it's massive maw wide open. Luke threw himself to the ground, and he rolled over to see Rose collide with the dog digimon, her fist planted squarely in its face.

Luke scrambled out onto the porch, barely avoiding being smashed by the falling Dobermon. But as he turned to help his digimon, he was bowled over by a yellow and white mass. The young man sprang to his feet, and saw that Rose had been thrown through the door at him.

"You good?" Snapped the teen, pulling his digimon to her feet.

"Yeah."

Snow started to drift down around the duo, fat white flakes filling the air. Luke reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue card. He ran it through his D-arc, and he stood back and watched as Rose transformed before his eyes.

The soft curves of the kitsune disappeared, replaced by nine tales and the stout form of a large fox. Around her neck was a black and white bow made of thick rope.

"Nice bells." Snickered Luke as he stared down the Dobermon standing in the doorway of the farmhouse.

"You're just jealous." Snapped Rose, a low growl emanating from her throat.

"You know me. Now let's fuck this guy's day up." Luke ran another card through his digivice, power suddenly starting to emanate from Rose.

"Power Activate!"

Rose lunged forward, the Dobermon sprinting off of the porch as well. The collective paws of the digimon thundered on the ground as the neared each other, both of the beasts bearing their teeth. Rose suddenly leapt into the air, spinning as she did so.

"Demon Spirit Fireball!" She barked, and hurled the newly created fireballs on her tails at the Dobermon.

The dog digimon snarled and attempted to leap to the side, but he was struck by several of the fiery spheres. Snow flew up into the air as the attack made contact, smalls spurts of steam drifting into the air.

Rose landed softly on the roof of the farmhouse, and from there leaped down to the ground. But mid-leap she was struck by a white blur, and the Kyubimon grunted as she slammed into the ground.

Luke swore under his breath.

"Heaven's Knuckle!" A beam of white light arced down from the sky, and Rose pushed herself out of the attacks path in the nick of time.

But even as she rose to her feet, the Kyubimon was struck with another attack. "Schwartz Strahl!"

Another beam of energy roared through the snowflakes, and struck Rose in the side.

"Fuck!" Roared Luke.

He pulled out another card from his jacket, "Speed Activate!" Barked the young man as he rammed the card through his D-arc.

Rose struggled to her feet and darted back to her tamer's side, the Kyubimon breathing heavily.

"New strategy." Growled the young tamer, "Keep moving, let's try to get our backs up against the barn. We'll have to wear them down."

"Right. MOVE!" Luke felt Rose grab onto his arm with her teeth and yank him out of the way of a searing black beam of energy.

The heat of the blast vaporized more snow, creating a cloud of steam. Luke sprinted over to the barn with Rose, and spun on his heel to face their attackers.

"Now Rose!"

Kyubimon flipped up onto the roof of the barn, gaining the vertical advantage on the two grounded wild digimon.

"Dragon wheel!" Rose suddenly became ensconced in blue fire, and the large fox digimon leaped into the air and spun towards her opponents.

This time the Dobermon managed to leap out of the way of the attack, but the Angemon was engulfed in blue flames. The angry digimon roared on pain as Rose burst through the flames of her own attack, sinking her massive canine teeth into the Angemon's shoulder.

Luke's smile quickly turned back into a frown as he watched the Angemon seize Rose with both hands and hurl her back towards him. The young tamer grimaced as he felt his digimon's anguish flow through their mental link, and he wished he could share her pain simply to alleviate some of it. He knew that they couldn't run, the digimon would run them down and kill them easily.

"Delete the Dobermon first." Said the young tamer in a gravelly tone as he pushed Rose back up to her feet.

Rose shakily nodded, and took off again in a flurry of snow. She dodged left, then right as she approached the two wild digmon.

"God Typhoon!" Barked the Angemon, the digimon remaining completely motionless as he twirled his staff.

A whirlwind of snow and biting wind flew out from the angel, and Rose yet again launched herself into the air.

"Dragon wheel!" Blue flames burst forth from the Kyubimon, and Rose bore down on the growling Dobermon.

Her attack slammed down onto the digimon, creating an explosion of snow and dirt.

"Now move!" Shouted Luke as he strafed sideways, barely avoiding Angemon's attack.

Rose and Luke moved in opposite edges of a giant circle, somewhat trapping the two wild digimon in the middle. But as digimon and tamer circled around, the Angemon hefted a massive arm and pointed to directly at Luke.

The young man felt an icy chill run through him, and he knew that things were about to take a turn for the worse. Luke ground to a halt, and with an annoyed sigh he watched the wild Dobermon shakily rise to its feet.

"Are you kidding me?" Roared Rose as she came to stand next to her tamer, the Kyubimon stamping her feet in frustration.

Before both digimon and tamer could react, the Angemon suddenly sprinted forward, its speed greatly enhanced by its massive wings.

Luke threw himself backward, desperately trying to dodge the charging angel digimon. Yet it was all for naught, and the young tamer felt a powerful, studded fist connect with his chest. All oxygen left Luke body, and he felt himself soar back through the air.

The young tamer slammed into the ground, barely able to see. Desperately the young man sucked in air, trying to relieve the pressure on his crushed chest.

He couldn't hear, he couldn't see, the young man couldn't even feel.

Slowly Luke pulled himself to his knees, desperately shaking his head in an attempt to restore some of his vision. In between ragged breathing he coughed up blood, bile flowing onto the snow. Out of the corner of his eye Luke saw a black and brown shape approaching him, and the young man raised an arm on a weak attempt to ward off whatever was about to happen.

Luke felt sharp objects slice into his arm, generating a dull pain. Warm fluid spurted onto his face, causing the young man to twitch involuntarily.

Yet as soon as the pain came it suddenly left, deep slices now left open to the cold night air. Luke blearily looked over his arm, frowning as he watched the snow around him turn a deep shade of red.

Shadows were threatening to overwhelm the young tamer's brain as he staggered to his feet, the teen swaying where he stood.

"Shit." Luke said as he coughed, spraying blood and bile everywhere.

His legs could no longer hold him. Luke fell towards the earth face first, landing with a crunch in the snow.

A blinding white light suddenly filled the young man's vision, reflecting off the snow.

Luke struggled against the shadows enveloping his mind, fighting a losing battle.

He could not move, despite his best efforts. All adrenaline had been spent.

Luke rolled over and attempted to push himself with his legs towards where he thought the farm house was. Maybe he could sit on the steps, rest a little bit before returning to the battle. Everyone would be fine with that. Right?

He seemed to push himself for an eternity, not really getting anywhere.

Luke tried to push himself up with his good elbow, but it was to no avail. The young man collapsed and simply watched the flakes of snow float down, anger boiling up inside to young man.

Why the hell couldn't he do anything?

Suddenly a pair of massive, warm, strong paws wrapped themselves around Luke, and the young man snarled. No one needed to help him, he could get up on his own!

"Oh no oh no oh no…." Luke frowned upon hearing these words. Who was worried? He was fine!

The young tamer felt something large and wet splash down on his chest, and with a massive heave Luke lifted his head up. A fearsome visage looked down on him. It was the face of Rose, yet something was… different. Black marks decorated her face, matching the digimon's dark eyes.

"No no no no no no no….." Choked the digimon, and Luke attempted to open his mouth to say something to comfort his new, massive digimon.

What had happened to Kyubimon? Luke couldn't wrap his fuzzy brain around it, but he was shaken as he felt more water cascading down on him. Closer examination showed the tears were streaking down Rose's face, and Luke felt himself suddenly become hugged tight against his digimon's chest.

"Don't… don't cry." Coughed Luke, the young tamer finally able to summon the ability to speak.

Rose did not respond, choosing to hug her tamer closer to herself as she sunk to her knees.

Luke smiled as he felt himself become enveloped in warmth. Dull pain flowed through his body, but he could get over that.

Now he felt that he could close his eyes.

For just a second. He could close his eyes.


	21. Chapter 21

Rika sat hunched over on the ground, her eyes slightly glazed over. The young tamer had a blanket loosely draped over her, the thin fabric providing little warmth. Her jaw was slack, making her mouth hang slightly open. The tamer's normally neat bun was now misshapen, with strands of hair falling out of it. Rika completely ignored the raindrops running down her face, the teen almost unable to feel the cold, stinging droplets. She sat on one side of an ambulance, the lights silently flashing on the red and white truck. All around the young girl were more ambulances along with fire trucks, police cars, and dozens of American military vehicles. Uniformed men and women, either in the dark camouflage of the US military or in the sharp uniforms of the Japanese police, medical and fire services, milled around. Some carried stretchers bearing bloodied and battered human beings, some loaded people into vehicles to be evacuated, some pulled ammunition and supplies into vehicles and drove off; everyone was doing something. But Rika ignored the controlled chaos swirling around her, the young girl deep in her own world. She grimaced over and over again as scenes from the recent fight ran wild through her imagination. Again and again Rika recoiled in horror at the sight of all of those broken bodies, shredded buildings. The smells still pervaded her nostrils, those horrifying scents that denoted scorched flesh and burnt hair. Yet the thing that made her almost faint was the constant image burned into her mind of Takato as Gallantmon, roaring in absolute rage, standing amidst the human wreckage, with his hand wrapped around a digimon, squeezing it to death.

This image was sickening to Rika. She couldn't bear to think of Takato like that. It just didn't make sense to her. He was supposed to be a goggle-headed dork that wouldn't intentionally hurt anything….

She had seen him get truly angry once before. That was in the digital world, and Takato had turned Guilmon into a horrifying monster that could tear the digital plain to pieces if it so desired. The entire crew had been so shaken by that act of pure rage, but this time around it was different.

Takato and Guilmon had become something different back there, and it scared the living hell out of Rika. She thought that she would be able to control the goof. Rika had convinced herself that she was the better tamer, that Takato was not serious enough to be one of the best. But at times like this Rika's deepest fears were brought to life.

Takato was so insanely powerful that absolutely no one could control him. He could barely control himself sometimes.

Rika shuddered at the thought that yet another thing she was desperately sure of had been shattered. She was so sure that she and Renamon were the best; they had been training together since day one. But yet again Takato had shown that he was horrifyingly powerful.

"You were scared that you lost him, weren't you?" Rika slipped back into reality with a sudden jerk.

Renamon had come to sit beside her young tamer. Weariness was etched onto the digimon's composure, weariness and concern. The kitsune pulled her own blanket around her shoulders, too tired to care about what anyone else thought at the moment.

Rika opened her mouth to snap back with some smart comment, but as she looked over Renamon she felt that little sliver of malice she had left fade away. Her digimon was right. The main thing she was scared of wasn't what Takato had done or could do; it was that she was afraid he wasn't going to come back as the same Takato.

"I… uh… yeah." Rika managed to choke out a couple words.

"I see why you're attracted to him."

Rika raised an eyebrow at Renamon, who continued.

"At first I watched you reluctantly fall for that fool Ryo. I feel you like you wanted to be closer to him because of his power, that's what I would have been attracted to. As much as you called him some stupid pretty boy, it was rather interesting to watch you become smitten with him."

Rika would have protested and snarled at Renamon at this point, but instead the teenage girl instead opted to snort and pull her hair out of its ponytail. She was too mentally exhausted to argue, and the young tamer wanted to hear what her digimon had to say.

"That boy is annoyingly one dimensional though, there's no fun to be had with him. I watched you become tired of Ryo and to be honest, I'm glad you did. I was about to speak to you about how mind numbingly dull that boy was."

Rika began to feel a little bit more comfortable as she listened to Renamon talk. At the back of her mind she wondered why Renamon had chosen to suddenly sit down and start talking like this, but she honestly didn't care. She loved talking to Renamon; they were the perfect partners for obvious reasons. Rika also found it highly amusing at how domineering and blunt her digimon was, especially when it came to her views on boys.

Renamon shifted a bit and kept on talking, "To be honest, I wasn't the biggest fan of Takato when we met him. That boy was a blundering moron who couldn't figure out how to count to twenty without taking his shoes off, much less how to fight."

Rika giggled a bit at this. The fact that Renamon made a joke was a rare and hilarious occurrence.

"I had a hard time respecting Takato and following his instructions. But as the years went by it was interesting to watch him grow up. He grew into a viable male rather quickly as a matter of fact. I remember when your mom took Takato, Henry, Terriermon, Guilmon, you and I with her when she had that modeling job in Monaco was the first time that I took stock of Takato. I recall that you spent a lot of time staring at him at the beach…"

Rika bit her tongue as she felt color spread onto her face. "So what? I was probably spacing out from boredom or something…"

"Sure. Anyways, Takato started to look like a fun little boy for you… I was debating saying something to you, but you kind of beat me to the punch. It still amuses me that most of our late night talks turned to Takato before you two became an item." Renamon let out sort of a half smile at this.

"So you think Takato would be fun for me?" Rika grinned as well.

"Well you always need some sort of difficult project to keep you amused, so I figured he might be worth a shot."

Rika coughed and chuckled, her smile starting to tug at the corners of her mouth. It felt good to talk to Renamon like this…. It was a healing experience to talk about simple stuff like boys after what had happened just an hour ago.

"And what about you? Hooking up with Guilmon?"

Renamon snapped her long tail, and Rika swore that her digimon was blushing.

"We enjoy each other's company. That is all there is to it."

The young tamer gently bumped Renamon with her shoulder, and Renamon let out an officious huff.

"We'll see about that." Rika tentatively stood up and stretched, her legs shaking a bit as she did so.

"I'm going to go find Takato. You coming?"

Renamon shook her head and rose to her feet, "I'm going to go find us some food. I'll find you when I'm done."

Rika acknowledged her digimon, and the pair parted ways for the moment. The young girl slowly started to walk around the hastily set up camp, trying her best to stay out of everyone's way. Out of the corner of her eye Rika saw lines of long black bags, and turned away quickly as she felt her stomach churn. She made her way over towards several black SUV's and trucks that bore equipment used for detecting digimon on the move in the net. Yamaki was conferring with several of the operators of the equipment, the man still flicking that old lighter of his anxiously.

As the young tamer neared the Hypnos setup, Yamaki turned towards Rika.

"Hey kid. You alright?"

Rika nodded as she got closer, "Yeah…. Is Takato around?"

The blond-haired man jerked his head to his left, and Rika wordlessly walked off in that direction. She suddenly hesitated, and turned back to Yamaki.

"Are they all gone?"

Yamaki bit his lip, "Yes. The Americans just finished cleaning up. According to our equipment the wild ones tried to retreat after we arrived, but it looks like the Americans weren't having any of that. They scrambled jets and tore the hell out of everything that moved."

Rika snorted, "Of course they did. Their weapons worked on the digimon?"

The Hypnos commander nodded, "Hit anything with enough firepower and it'll disappear apparently."

Rika rolled her eyes and walked off in the direction Yamaki had indicated. She ducked around a couple Hypnos personnel and walked past the massive white trucks that she had learned to dread all those years ago. Two rows of tents emerged in front of Rika, hastily set up to guard the tables underneath them from the driving rain.

Boxes of ammunition made some of the plastic tables sag, and some of the other tables bore the weight of medical supplies. Grim soldiers clad in the thick armor and dark uniforms of the US military, shoved magazines full of glinting bullets into their gear and piled medical supplies haphazardly into their packs. Rainwater dripped off of the creases in their uniforms and armor, the droplets tinted crimson.

Rika slowly wandered into the staging point, making sure to avoid the uniformed men and women hustling about. She hunted for a friendly face, her previous anxiety slowly returning. Without meaning to the young tamer clenched her hands into nervous fists underneath her blanket, driving her nails into her palms.

"Rika! Hey, Rika!" A familiar voice drifted through the wind and rain, causing Rika to stop in her tracks.

Underneath a nearby tent stood Kazu, the young man wearing what looked to be a thick jacket imprinted with the ACU pattern used by the US military. The sleeves hung down around his hands, showing that the jacket was obviously borrowed. Guardramon loomed behind Kazu, waving at Rika.

"Miss Makino! Oh! Here! Over here!" Rika thought that this was probably the first time she had ever been relieved to see Kazu or his over-courteous tin can.

"Hey!" Shouted Rika at the top of her voice, the tamer's nervousness apparent.

She felt her cheeks burn as the hard eyes of dozens of soldiers turned towards the source of this sudden noise, and Rika strode over to Kazu with a snarl.

"Rika I didn't know that you made it down here! Did you see what happened?"

The young female tamer chose not to respond. Instead she only pulled her blanket tighter around her shoulders, and cast a cold gaze in Kazu's direction.

"Oh… stupid question. Right." Kazu broke eye contact with Rika and wrung his hands, "So… uh… yeah… you okay?"

Rika sighed and leaned up against the empty table that sat underneath the tent, "I've been better. How about you?"

The young tamer across from Rika shifted from one foot to the other, rubbing the back of his neck, "We're… okay."

For some reason Rika felt a wave of concern wash over her, concern for Kazu. She frowned, hating the feeling of caring out of pure habit.

"So… did you get attacked too?" Rika posed the question tentatively, unsure of how to properly formulate herself.

Kazu nodded, "Ryo, Kenta, Henry and I got picked up by some guy from Hypnos or something, and he took us downtown to meet up with you and Takato for some reason. There was a huge explosion, and… people… people…"

"I know." Rika interrupted Kazu, not wanting to force the young man to finish his sentence.

He just nodded numbly, and Guardramon let out a low, comforting rumble.

"Did everyone… make it?"

"Yeah." Murmured Kazu, his eyes growing hazy.

"Are Takato and Guilmon around?"

Kazu perked up upon hearing Takato's name. "Yeah yeah chumly went out with Henry and Kazu to find something warm to eat or drink for everyone. He should be back in a second."

Rika watched as Kazu seemed to shore himself up emotionally with that simple answer. She knew that she too was building dozens of mental barricades to block out the images, sounds, and smells of what had happened scarcely an hour ago. Every scrap of brain power she had left was focusing on every little detail that could be used to make her forget and block out the horrifying scenes that replayed in her head over and over again. Rika knew what Kazu was feeling. The young man was so horribly broken that he was beyond repair, beyond saving. Kazu knew it, but did not want to acknowledge it. Rika did not want to either. She knew she was a completely different person now, but refused to believe the facts.

Before Rika could dive further into her own thoughts warm, pleasant smelling air wafted over her face, and she felt her now soaking blanket fall off of her shoulders. Recoiling slightly in surprise, Rika looked down to see a cup of warm, brown liquid being forced into her rigid hands. A warm blanket suddenly enveloped her, and Rika grabbed the cup and looked up from it to see a pair of soft, crimson eyes staring into hers.

"You should try this stuff; I got it from the Americans. It's hot chocolate but… richer."

Rika felt a feeling of warmth explode from where her heart was and spread throughout her entire body, and without meaning to the young tamer let out a small smile.

"Hi Takato…" Murmered Rika, trying to hide her blushing from the grinning young man in front of her.

All feelings of numbness and separation from reality were wiped away in an instant; memories of Takato's rage and inhumanity obliterated. Rika struggled to control the sudden feeling of comfort washing over her body, but her heart thumped harder and harder.

Trying to distract herself Rika took a sip of the hot chocolate Takato had brought her. To the tamers surprise the drink was superbly rich and deep, the liquid shocking her taste buds. Takato chuckled as Rika flinched, and she snarled at him in return. Rika took another sip, taking in the hot chocolate more carefully this time.

"Okay so this isn't terrible. Thanks goggle dork."

Takato crossed his arms tightly and rubbed his biceps, trying to push some amount of warmth into his body. Yet his loose smile only widened as Rika snapped at him, the edges of his mouth tugging a bit higher.

"I'm glad you're not dry heaving princess. I know that you can't tolerate anything less than sustenance suitable for royalty."

Rika coughed and spluttered, the young woman shocked by Takato's random sarcastic comment. Her boyfriend had always been the oblivious type, taking things at face value. So this crack was a rare occurrence, and inwardly Rika found it hilarious in spite of her pride.

"You calling me pampered?" Bit back Rika.

"Did I?" The Digimon Queen frowned as she watched Takato suddenly fall out of their otherwise enjoyable bout of bickering.

Rika opened her mouth to continue, but feelings of concern welled up in her as she looked over her team leader. His dark red eyes usually shined with joy and general happiness, but now they barely even flickered. Takato's boyish charm was nonexistent at the moment, and he seemed weary beyond all comparison.

All of the emotions she had kept stopped out over the years had recently started to leak out, and Rika felt her heart slowly starting to overtake the functions normally conducted by her brain. She felt those untapped emotions stored up during her childhood start to flow throughout her body, much to her chagrin. The longer she looked over Takato, the more and more she hurt.

Choosing not to speak, Rika instead decided to act. She set her cup down on the table next to her and stepped forward into Takato. The young tamer buried herself in the teens chest, gently rubbing her cheek against his soggy t-shirt. Rika felt a pair of arms slowly wrap around her, loosely at first. But the Ice Queen felt Takato pull her in closer and closer, so close that Rika could hear the slow beating of Takato's heart.

"You okay?" A whisper drifted down from Takato, the young man now holding her tightly in his arms.

"Are you?" Rika answered Takato's question with one of her own.

No verbal response came from the young man, but Rika knew the answer to her question. Takato was a master of keeping his emotions in check, but Rika knew the signs. She used to keep everything all bottled up, and she knew what to look for.

"I'm alright…" Takato released Rika as she straightened up.

"No you're not."

Takato's shoulders dropped, and he sighed. The young man refused to meet Rika's gaze, and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Look… Takato…" Rika bit her lip, struggling to find the right words, "I know, I saw. I was there. I was right there with you. And what happened is… I don't even know. But we're all here, right? Henry, Kazu, Kenta, Terriermon, Guardramon, MarineAngemon, Renamon, Guilmon, we all made it."

Takato rubbed the back of his neck with both hands, finally glancing up at Rika, "I know… but we could have done something more. I can think of a thousand, a million things I could have done to save more people."

"I know… I can too. But don't think about that… please. You did a good job today Takato. You were the first person to spot any signs and you did the right thing. Think of what would have happened if you didn't take action."

Takato looked over Rika with his soft crimson eyes, and she saw a flicker of relief flash through the young man's features. "You did alright today gogglehead…"

Rika watched a small grin appear on Takato's face, and she smiled back in return. Slowly Takato reached out a wrapped his hands around Rika's. He pulled her slowly into his chest, and the Digimon Queen felt happiness flood through her as she was enveloped in a rain soaked embrace.

A gentle hand came under Rika's chin, and she felt her face being lifted up towards Takato's. She sniffled as Takato bumped his nose into hers, squinting a bit out of surprise. But her gaze was soon filled with Takato's gentle red eyes.

Rika let out a surprised murmur as she felt a pair of lips embrace hers, but her heart melted from the pressure of Takato's kiss. The young woman let her eyes slide shut as she took on Takato's kiss with everything that she had. She poured all of her fear, trepidation, worry, sadness, and horror into the lips embracing her own.

"Well I'm glad to see something is back to normal." With a gasp Rika broke her connection with Takato to look for the source of the snappy comment.

Renamon was setting down cartons, paper bags and cups on a table. Rain dripped off of her fur, the ruffle on her neck now conforming to the curves of her body. She was smiling maliciously at Rika, causing the young girl to blush. Next to her stood Guilmon; and behind Renamon stood Henry, Terriermon sitting on his head, and the rest of the crew.

The entire group was soaked to the bone and shivering, but a feeling of collective relief washed over everyone. They were all here, under a small tent in a makeshift US military staging area. They had made it through the pouring rain, violent explosions, murderous digimon, and collapsing buildings so that they could once again stand together underneath a thin tent and shiver in silence.

"We were never normal." Rika turned back to Takato embraced his lips with hers yet again, letting that feeling of relief and love rush through her again.


	22. Chapter 22

**Your reviews are ever motivating; you guys know how awesome it is to get feedback. I do apologize for the length in between chapter updates though. By the way I was reading Eggz's story earlier, and holy hell can that kid write. In other news, it seems that digimon do have a defined gender. I know that Renamon says 'digimon are not separated by sex' or something along those lines, but literally every season seems to make it clear that digimon do indeed have a defined gender within their species. I know I've said this before but as beings of data that are in contact with the internet, it seems that digimon would be constantly updating and changing. But you don't want to hear about my rambling, here's another chapter.**

Everything was dark. There were no defined shapes, only an overriding black mass. There were no corners, doors, walls, nothing. Just darkness. Absolute and unending blackness.

Luke frowned at this. Unfamiliarity was not a feeling he enjoyed.

And his mouth was rather dry. That annoyed Luke considerably. Stupid dehydration.

Pulses of electricity flowed out of the young man's heart and coursed through his body. With some amount of effort Luke moved his fingers, and then his arms.

Next he moved his legs a bit, making sure everything was still attached and in working order.

His limbs seemed to work fine, much to the young man's relief. Luke ran his tongue around his dry mouth again and again, as if some magical change was going to occur. _Now where the hell can I get some water… And why haven't I had to blink yet?_

Luke slowly stumbled upon his latest revelation. His eyes were closed.

With a great heave that took much more effort than it was supposed to, Luke forced his eyes open.

At first he was greeted by a mass of fuzzy objects, but everything gradually regained their definition. Several Star Wars jokes filtered through the young tamer's brain, and Luke blinked rapidly as he chuckled to himself.

Above the young man was a simple adobe colored ceiling and a couple holes that he assumed were for lights. Several white plastic machines stood around Luke, all humming quietly.

_Wait a hospital? Since when… Oh._ Luke felt realization wash over him, and he let out an exasperated mental sigh. While what happened was not entirely clear, Luke recalled some sort of fight.

Tensing his muscles, Luke pushed himself slowly upward with his arms. His body still wasn't entirely functional, and that bothered the young man considerably. Looking to his left Luke spotted a water bottle sitting on a nightstand, and without hesitating he reached out a snatched it. The young tamer unscrewed the lid and took in half the bottles contents, letting the cool liquid run through him.

Gasping in relief Luke put the lid back on the water and took in his surroundings. It was a typical hospital room, and judging by the buildings outside the floor he was on sat several stories.

This meant he was at a major hospital, not Pullman General.

This revelation of course raised even more questions. Luke sighed mentally again, and unconsciously moved to rub his eyes.

To the young man's surprise rough bandages greeted his heavy eyelids, and Luke recoiled slightly. Looking downwards the young tamer saw that the palm of his right hand was covered in gauze, and his entire left forearm was ensconced in the same material. _How did I honestly not notice this before?_

Luke began to visually check over his entire body, not wanting to be surprised by any more bandages. He knew he had been attacked and injured, but the details were slightly fuzzy.

Sure enough more white and crimson bandages covered Luke's left calf. Judging from the blood stain on the bandages there was a long, straight gash running down Luke's leg.

Luke ran his hands through his hair, a habit the young man developed to soothe his nerves. At the moment a weird, crackling tension was starting to course through the young tamer's body. It felt like he needed to get up and move, but at the same time he felt utterly exhausted. Luke felt inexplicably angry, and the fact that he had no idea why he was infuriated him even further.

A sudden murmur and low growl snapped Luke to sudden attention, and the young man nearly jumped straight out his hospital bed. His heart thumping away wildly in his chest, Luke squinted around the room to find the source of the noise. The young tamer had regained most of his vision, and as his eyes became accustomed to the darkness he spied a yellow, white and black mass curled up in a large armchair tucked in the corner of the room.

Rose was fast asleep, the digimon snuggled deep into the thick cushions of the armchair. Her nose twitched every once in a while, and her ears flicked as she interacted with her dreams. Luke bit his lip as he saw the streaks of dried blood in his digimon's fur, matting her usually pristine coat. Tucked up against her chest was his digvice, the machine held tightly in both of Rose's paws.

Luke contemplated waking his digimon up, forcing the gears in his head to move. Despite coming up with several reasons not to wake his sleeping digimon, complete with graphic examples, the young tamer decided to rouse his Renamon.

"Rose." Luke's voice came out low and raspy, and he quickly snatched up the water bottle from his nightstand.

After refreshing his throat again, Luke let out a louder "Rose."

Nothing.

Growling to himself, Luke screwed the cap firmly back onto the water bottle and heaved it across the room, the plastic vessel land square on Rose's head.

Luke grinned as he got the reaction he wanted. Rose's eyes flickered open and the Renamon scrambled around on the chair, eventually coming to some sort of sitting position.

"Wha… hey wait he… I…" Luke let out a low, gravelly chuckle at his digimon's antics, and he let his smile grow as he saw Rose's black eyes widen in shock.

"Oh for the love of the sovereigns…." Rose buried her face in her large paws and let out a deep sigh.

"Hey." Growled Luke, a smile still gracing his face.

"You… You…. Oh dammit."

Rubbing her eyes furiously, the yellow Renamon let out a low growl.

"Are you alright?" Asked Luke, rubbing the stubble on his face.

"I'm… okay."

"You're covered in blood. That's far from ok." Luke grabbed his watch from the bedside table, and glanced at the black and bronze face. The time read out to be 3:00 AM.

"This is your blood." Murmured Rose, pulling her gauntlets off and setting them on the floor next to her.

"Oh…" Luke but his lip, "So… How'd you get covered in my blood…"

"You don't remember?"

Luke clenched his hands into fists, knuckles popping as he did so. "I remember… Movement. I can't recall much, it's all a god damn big blur…"

Rose crossed her arms and leaned back into the cushions of the chair she was lounging in, "We went out into the Palouse to investigate a digital signal, and we came across a farm. My guess is that we surprised the two digimon who were already at the farm, and we were far more ready to fight than they were."

"We surprised them?" Luke's grin fell slowly from his face as he struggled to remember the details of the battle.

"Unintentionally ambushed might be a better description. We took on an Angemon and a Dobermon, two very powerful digimon. Despite our injuries, we still managed to beat both of them."

Luke nodded in agreement, "Good point, but I don't remember too much of the fight…. How exactly did we win?"

The young man saw Rose's arms suddenly tense, and Luke raised an eyebrow at his digimon as the white tip of her tail started to flick around excitedly.

"Rose?" Luke caught himself before he accidently snapped at his digimon, and instead dug his fingers into his leg to allay his annoyance.

"I digivolved." Rose emanated excitement upon this announcement, "I digivolved into Taomon."

Despite the edgy tension and anger racking Luke's body, he still unleashed a massive grin, "No way. How'd you do it? What happened?"

"I knew that we were losing the fight, so I was going to circle back to you and rework our. The Dobermon hit you before I could do anything, and that… bothered me."

Rose paused at this, and Luke met her black eyes with a comforting gaze.

"A light pulsed out of your digivice and covered your body as you fell. While I ran towards you the… light, for lack of a better word, shot out towards me. I felt my data intercept new code, and change before I really had a chance to do anything."

"And this new code turned you into Taomon?" Asked Luke.

Rose nodded, a small grin catching at the corners of her mouth, "After a while, I returned to this form. No data left during the transformation, so I'm assuming I can digivolve into Taomon again."

The young tamer shrugged at his digimon's statement, "Based off of what happened when you digivolved into Kyuagamon the first time, you're probably right. How'd the new body feel?"

Rose started to practically writhe with excitement. Or rather, writhe with excitement on Renamon standards. "In a word… Efficient. It was quite an enjoyable experience; being afforded such a new range of abilities was quite enjoyable."

Luke could not help but smile at his digimon's obvious happiness, it was abundantly clear that Rose was quite pleased with herself. "You're becoming more powerful every single day, I swear. It's easily noticeable how far you've come."

The leather of the armchair containing Rose grunted as she shoved herself deeper into the thick, hide-bound cushions of the chair. The young tamer felt a bit of embarrassment and pride drip through the mental link he retained with the digimon across from him. There was something else there too though, something Rose was trying to bury. While Luke was not exactly an expert on reading digimon emotions, much less the emotions of a female digimon, it seemed like Rose had been… crying?

"Anyways, how do you feel?" Asked Rose, attempting to ward off further embarrassing praise.

Luke let out an annoyed, sharp sigh. "Well I'm in the hospital, covered in bandages and dried blood, and I feel like I was attacked by a digimon. Which, surprise-surprise, I was! I'm confused, annoyed, in pain, and pretty pissed off for some reason."

Rose's ears folded flat against the back of her head at her tamer's sudden outburst, and Luke swore he saw her lip tremble a bit. Luke knew that his sudden outburst carried massive amounts of venom, but the young man did not regret it. He was incredibly agitated and the young tamer could not fathom why. For the life of him Luke did not want to snarl and snap the way he was, but the pent up anger inside of him was slowly getting the best of the tamer.

"Furthermore, I have no idea why I'm so god damn on edge right now. It's so fucking…." Luke squeezed his hands tightly into fists, every muscle on his body suddenly standing out as he tensed, "Frustating! Shit Rose! God…. fucking dammit!"

Luke no longer cared about controlling his anger. He was going to let it flow freely, manners be dammed. Searching around wildly, Luke slammed his fist down on the nightstand that held the water bottles. The piece of furniture creaked and cracked, and a loud bang emanated forth.

As his fist contacted the table, Luke poured all of his anger and frustration into the sudden connection with the wood. It was almost relieving to physically contact something, to pour every bit of strength into a sudden movement. The pain lancing through his fist was welcome, it was something he was used to. Luke welcomed the sharp needles, a welcome distraction from the weird, fuzzy feeling of the hospital.

"I'm sorry Rose…" Murmured the young man, "I… I don't know. I'm sorry."

Luke looked up to see Rose sunk as far possible into the chair she had claimed. Her legs were pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped around her muscular thighs. Long ear flush against her head, the Renamon looked like she attempting to hide from her tamer. To an untrained eye Rose looked as emotionless as a Renamon normally would be, but Luke instantly knew better. Those feelings that the Renamon was trying to keep buried and secure were now surfacing.

Rose was on the verge of tears. Luke knew the signs.

Her normally brilliant eyes wavered ever so slightly, and she was biting her lip to keep it from quivering. Furthermore, Rose never, ever pulled her legs up like she was doing now. Ever. The digimon considered it undignified.

Searching their linked minds, Luke found a wave of emotion threatening to overwhelm his digimon. It was a wave of concern, love, fear, and sadness.

It broke Luke's heart.

"Rose…" Luke stuttered, running his fingers slowly through his hair.

"I thought you were going to die…." Whispered Rose, her voice catching, "You were bleeding so badly…"

Luke watched as Rose started to shiver slightly, "I didn't know what to do…. I've never b-been so scared-d in my entire life. I… I… Oh hell Luke I was so s-s-scared. You were blee-bleeding everywhere. All over me. And the ground…."

Rose buried her face in her massive paws, hiding herself from her tamer, "Oh please… oh s-s-shit just-t-t…t…." Luke heard his Renamon cough and choke, her shoulders shaking.

Luke knew she was crying. It scared the living hell out him. He had no idea Renamon could cry. That they could be sad at all.

"I…. I threw up when they took you from-m-m me-ee. I ran so fast… To the hospital. And they took you. I was so… so-so scared. I-I've never thrown up before. B-but I did. N-Nathan c-c-came. To talk to-to me. I… Fuck you Luke."

"Nathan came?" Asked Luke softly.

Rose rocked her body back and forth to confirm her statement, "He… he drove me up here. Borrowed his… his sisters c-car."

"That was nice of him." Said Luke softly, Rose only nodding in reply.

The young man struggled to find something, anything to say. He honestly had no idea what to do. This was his digimon, A Renamon, crying. On top of that, Rose was a girl. Making the situation endlessly complicated.

Well… Luke was pretty sure she was a female digimon at least….

"Rose… I'm sorry… thanks for saving me…" Luke dropped his shoulders as all energy left his body.

Getting no response from his digimon, Luke continued, "I'm just… I don't even know. I shouldn't have snapped at you, you didn't do anything. I owe you my life anyways."

"Y-you agreed t-to be my tamer. I-I should be able to p-protect-ct you." Rose slid one black and yellow eye out from behind her massive, bloodstained paws.

"I'm not dead. So you did just fine." Murmured Luke.

"I thought you-u were going to die…. " Rose let out another sob and buried her face into her thighs.

Luke growled deep in his throat, unsure of what to do. "Rose…. You did your job. You defeated two digimon that were incredibly powerful. Destroying even one of them would have been a challenge. But you took out both. Sure we came out the other side a bit banged up but I'm alive, you're still in one piece, and we're stronger than ever before."

This elicited no response from Rose, the digimon still tucked up in a tight ball. Luke rubbed his eyes, a bit exasperated and worried. While it was nice to know that Rose cared for him deeply, the young tamer had never been especially adept at consoling crying females.

"I'm not mad at you Rose, I don't know how I ever could be…." Luke rubbed the back of his neck pensively, "In fact I'm mostly glad that you're okay."

A yellow ear was raised slightly at this remark, signaling that the quietly sobbing digimon might have heard something she liked.

"I mean… I don't know… I'm sorry Rose I don't especially have a way with words…." Luke cast around for the right way to convey his emotions, "You're alive. I am too. Does anything else matter?"

"Yes…. I mean… Well…." Rose's disconcerted mumblings was not interrupted by as much crying as they were before, a step in the right direction as far as Luke was concerned.

The young tamer attempted to lighten his digimon's mood, "Furthermore, I didn't know Renamon were allowed to cry."

This made Rose raise her head out of its confines and shoot a cold, tear soaked glare in the direction of her tamer. Luke could not help but reply with a toothy smile.

"I'm not crying. Emotions are needed to cry, and I have none of those troublesome human characteristics." Rose sniffled a bit and wiped her face on her biceps, attempting to remove the wet streaks in her fur.

"You loser." Murmured Luke, "Would you just get up and come over here already?"

Rose let out a low growl, her eyes narrowing as she apparently decided whether or not her tamer was currently worthy of her company.

"Fine." With her standard amount of grace Rose slid out of her throne.

Stretching mightily, Luke watched as his digimon threw her paws up towards to ceiling. She extended her body to its fullest, ever muscle going from slack to fully tense. In her left paw Rose still held her tamer's digivice, the machine's gold highlights glinting in the moonlight.

"This belongs to you." Finishing her stretching, Rose placed Luke's D-arc on his bedside table.

Luke moved over to allow his digimon room to sit in bed beside him, the young man moving slowly to avoid disturbing the IV or any of the other equipment attached to him. He was rather surprised the no one had come in, especially after the amount of noise he had created.

The young tamer decided not to dwell on what did not really matter as his digimon slid into the hospital bed next to him, pulling the thick covers over herself. Luke slid back under the covers as well. Rose pulled her gauntlets off and threw them across the room to land in her chair. Showing no constraint whatsoever, Rose shuffled up close and nuzzled Luke's neck as she wrapped her arms gently around him, the digimon still sniffling a bit. Despite some protests from the back of Luke's mind, the young man had no real qualms with his digimon's decision to wrap herself around him.

Even though Rose's fur was partially matted with blood and sweat, her body was soft and warm. Luke did nothing to hinder the tingle rushing through his body as Rose's slender form pressed up against his. The young tamer noticed that she was trying to be as gentle as possible in order to avoid bumping up against any of her tamer's injuries, an effort he appreciated.

As Rose situated herself, Luke felt two things that triggered stomach-churning feelings of embarrassment.

First, a deep hum of content suddenly emanated from Rose. His Renamon was purring. This confused Luke more than ever. Purring generally indicated a deep seated happiness and pleasure. Renamon were not emotional creature's period, yet here was a prime example of the kitsune digimon nuzzling her tamer. Luke understood that like humans every digimon was different, but his Renamon was an interesting case. The young man had other things on his mind though.

What was weighing on the young tamer's mind, the second thing that was making him feel rather embarrassed, was the fact that Rose's breasts were pressed up against the young man's chest.

The fact that the large tuft of fur on a female Renamon's chest actually concealed breasts was both amusing and now considerably awkward due to the current situation. Luke attempted to distance himself from thinking about his digimon's breasts, despite the deluge of images rushing through his mind and the considerable urge to look down. The tamer could feel his digimon's nipples brush up against his bare skin, something Luke thought to be rather unfair.

"Well I'm glad to see you've made yourself comfortable." Murmured Luke.

"Shut up." Snipped Rose, her voice muffled on account of the fact the she had started to nuzzle her tamer's neck.

Luke wrapped an arm around Rose, enjoying the feeling of relaxed muscle underneath his fingers.

"You've been spending an inordinate amount of time with the girls." Said the young man, referring to friends of his that quickly befriended Rose.

This statement earned Luke a light nip on the neck, "Just shut up."

Luke opened his mouth to provide a snarky response, but before he could utter a word Rose rubbed her soft breasts against her tamer's chest, effectively silencing him.

"You ought to keep your thoughts more closely guarded." Whispered Rose.

"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about…." Gasped Luke quietly.

"What part of shut up do you not understand?" Hissed Rose, caressing part of her tamer's neck in a gentle bite.

Rose continued, "You scared the living data out of me by almost dying, bled all over me, and therefore forced me to talk to your parents! You know I hate talking! Suffice to say I am quite upset with you."

Luke could not help but smile as his digimon berated him. Yet his mirth soon turned back to substantial sexual embarrassment as he felt something soft, warm and damp on his neck.

The young tamer's stomach did flips as he realized Rose was kissing his neck. Her warm lips sent tingling shockwaves of electricity pulsing through Luke's body, leaving the young man incapable of any valid form of protest. Part of him found this weird as he had convinced himself he had no feelings for his digimon beyond those of a close friend. But another part of the young man that should have been protesting had no problem with Rose kissing her way up his neck.

_Is this happening? Does this normally happen? Well of course it's happening but… with my digimon?_ Luke struggled to keep a solid line of thoughts going as he pushed his head back into his pillows, Rose still nuzzling and kissing his neck.

"This is…. Un-unexpected." Stuttered Luke, the tamer unable to hold his composure.

Rose raised her head and met her tamer's eyes. "Luke. Shut. The. Fuck. Up."

Raising herself up, Rose firmly caressed the side of Luke's face. The young tamer's heartbeat started to thunder as he slid his eyes shut, pushed aside personal barriers and generally decided to stop caring. A soft, somewhat damp nose met the tip of Luke's nose. This of meeting flesh and data was followed by another meeting, this one of gentle and soft lips. To the young man's surprise Rose had no problems maneuvering her muzzle so that her lips could meet his. Fleeting factual discoveries were soon brushed aside as Luke felt Rose embrace his lips with hers.

There was no awkwardness, only surprising serenity. Luke felt thousands of warm, wonderful emotions surge through his body as he kissed back, taking in the taste of his digimon.

_She isn't too bad…_ Thought Luke in spite of himself. He knew he this was wrong. He knew this was different. But the tamer found that he didn't care at all.

Lips as delicate as heaven were Luke's to kiss over and over again. He had Rose wrapped around his finger more than ever before, a feeling Luke knew he would never tire of.

A rough tongue gently slid over the young man's lips, sending further pulses of electricity racing through Luke's already charged body. This was further accentuated by Rose's apparent loss of control of her actions. Throwing caution to the winds Luke felt his digimon climb on top of him and proceed to mash her slender form against his.

Pain heeded no longer, Luke pushed back into Rose's aggressive kissing. Every inch of the kitsune's body was rubbing against the tamer's body, privacy thrown aside by the taciturn digimon. She eagerly mashed her ample breasts and tight stomach against her tamer's body, wanting to feel the young man's entire being touching hers.

A moan emanated from Rose, rumbling through to her tamer. Luke could feel her obvious pleasure coursing through their mental link, and despite his best efforts to restrain himself this was turning him on as well. Something that Luke knew not to be good.

The feverous kissing slowed, but became more deep and prolonged. Both tamer and digimon were overwhelmed by both their own emotions and the feelings pouring through their mental link. Luke started to play with Rose's lips using his own tongue, electing more involuntary spasms of pleasure from his digimon. She tasted intoxicatingly good, like a dozen sweet, exotic spices blended together.

Luke wrapped both arms around his digimon, slowly feeling out every curve. He cackled in his mind as Rose let out a low, pleading whine. Dangerous thoughts whispered through the mind of the tamer as he moved his hands down his Renamon's muscled curves. He found the round, tight curves of Rose's butt with no problem. Muscles tensed as Luke squeezed his digimon's ass, Rose shuddering at her tamer's coaxing.

A slight nibble on Luke's lip was added to Rose's deep kisses, the tamer responding by digging his fingers into the kitsune's firm ass. This apparently drove Rose absolutely wild.

Hips suddenly met hips, and Rose no longer left her butt hoisted in the air. To Luke's malicious surprise this sudden move by Rose to grind her hips against his left one of his hands in an interesting position. Luke's hand was now splayed perfectly over Rose's soaking wet cunt.

_That's interesting._ Mused the young man, a thousand new ideas pouring through his sexually charged mind.

Rose knew what had happened, and it apparently it did not bother her in the least. She was already incredibly wet, and her tamer's hand on her vulnerable pussy did nothing but make the situation better for her. She let out another pleading, growling moan, and Luke knew perfectly well what she wanted.

Deciding to be as sexually evil as possible to his digimon, Luke ran a sole along Rose's soaked slit, starting at the clit. As expected, this made the Renamon shake almost uncontrollably.

Grinning to himself, Luke paused for a moment and simply rubbed his digimon's wet cunt. Then, without warning, he slowly slid one finger deep inside of Rose. Simultaneously he broke their long kiss, making the Renamon he now had literally wrapped around his finger let out a wild moan of pleasure.

Slowly, ever so slowly Luke pulled his finger out of Rose's now quivering hole, only to slide it deeper back into her pussy. Ramming her head into the pillows next to Luke's head, the young man could hear his digimon gasping.

"Now look," Murmured Luke as he pulled his finger in and out again, "You are going to do exactly as I say. Understand?"

"Okay okay okay okay okay just please please pleaaase mate with me…" Rose could not force out a reply fast enough, the digimon convulsing as her tamer's finger brought her vast amounts of pleasure.

Fighting hard against the urge to simply rail his digimon until every doctor on the night shift came running to his room; Luke instead took his free hand and slid one finger over Rose's clit.

"Not right now." Grunted Luke as Rose unwillingly pushed herself up against his body as he toyed with her soaking cunt.

"Luke I swear to the sovereigns I will fuck your brai….." Rose's threat was stopped mid-sentence as Luke started to finger her slightly faster.

"Not now Rose."

"Please…." Begged the digimon through grunts and gasps, her tamer responding by pinching her bare clitoris.

This brought about the biggest shudder yet from the Renamon, who could only grind more feverously against her tamer's finger as she came again and again.

"Rose I want to fuck you so badly right now I can't even come up with a joke about it." Luke let out a low sigh, "But as of right now, that is just not an option. Now, are you going to do what I say?"

By now Luke had established a rhythm in his fingering, and Rose's soaked pussy provided absolutely no resistance whatsoever to his torturous ministrations.

"N-n-never." Snarled Rose, her muzzle half buried in the pillow.

Luke rolled his eyes and raised a second finger on his right hand. As he pulled his first finger out of Rose's cunt he added the second one to it, now sliding two digits inside of his digimon.

A quiet yelp came from Rose. "Oh by the sovereigns it hurts but….. damn damn fuck it feels so damn good! I hate you so fucking much!"

"Rose." Admonished Luke, reminding her of the point of the exercise.

"Alright yes yes yes whatever you want!"

Luke grinned from ear to ear, "Good girl."

With that the tamer drove his fingers deep into Rose's sopping wet hole and drew them back out, repeating this again and again. He teased her clit more than he had ever done, doubling the flow of pleasure surging through the pair's mental link.

It seemed that Rose had temporarily lost the ability to speak, instead only able to moan and whine as she drove her hips against her tamer's hands. Luke felt her cunt tighten and clench several times as he buried his fingers in her, the digimon's pussy staying constantly wet.

After what seemed like half an hour Luke withdrew his fingers from Rose's sticky hole and wiped both of his hands on the bedsheets. Teetering slightly, Luke's watched with hooded eyes as Rose toppled over to the right.

"Now get some sleep, we're going to be incredibly busy tomorrow." Said the young man with a slight chuckle.

It was always fun for him to play with girls like this, but he had never had this much fun before. Rose was worn out, exhausted, messier than ever, and in the eyes of her tamer, kind of adorable.

"That…." Rose was clearly struggling to put her thoughts into words as she lay next to her tamer in a heap, "That… went well."

Recognizing one of his own phrases, Luke laughed out loud at his digmon. He was now quite exhausted, but in a much better mood, something he was thankful for.

"I'm sorry for kissing you though… I was out of line." Whispered Rose at such a low volume that Luke had trouble hearing her.

"It was unexpected, sure." Mumbled Luke, closing his eyes and yawning, "But I'm glad you did."

Rose let out a questioning growl, and Luke responded by wrapping his right arm around her and pulling her in close.

"Are you glad you did it?" Asked Luke.

"Obviously."

Luke snorted and yawned again, "Good. Now get some sleep, we'll talk in the morning."

"Fine." Said Rose groggily, "I'm not going to say this ever again, but I'm so glad I chose you to be my tamer. I can't even begin to explain, so don't ask me to."

A smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, Luke murmured back, "I'm the luckiest tamer in the world; I've known that for a while. Now go to sleep for the love of god…."

Rose did not reply, and her steady breathing told the tamer that it was alright for him to drift off to sleep as well.


	23. Chapter 23

**Finally finished with this damn chapter. Again I must apologize for my tardiness; work and school are all consuming at the moment. Your patience is much appreciated, I really want to see this story through with you guys. I apologize for any writing and grammatical errors, I wrote this on several different airplane flights. A shout-out to all of you who felt inclined to drop by my dormant story and verbally harangue me into updating, I honestly appreciate it. Now here's some damn Rukato. **

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Even though Takato had moved out of his parent's home almost a year ago, the environment he had created in his dorm room was remarkably similar to that of his old bedroom. His bed was unmade, covers and pillows piled at one end and the comforter at the other. Mounds of clothes both clean and dirty littered the floor of the dorm room, the young tamer still not seeing any reason to organize his clothing despite years of scolding. A large crimson and ivory reptile was sprawled out over the second raised bed in the room, the digimon loosely covered in odd blankets. In the far wall of the door room was a large window, shut tight to guard against the grey skies outside and the downpour they were unleashing. The other two walls of Takato's cramped quarters were plastered from floor to ceiling with posters, pictures and drawings. The subjects of these decorations for the most part were, of course, digimon. Whether it was small sketches of digimon or massive posters featuring Takato's tamer idols, the flood of images made it clear that the young man was quite interested in everything digital.

Tacked to the wall amongst the plethora of blindingly colorful posters were a handful of simple 5"x8" photographs. All of the pictures featured groups of people and digimon, all clustered together to conform to the constraints of the lens. There were several beings constantly present in every photo, one of them a young man who was usually grinning sheepishly at the cameria, his spiky blue hair sharply contrasted by the green and ivory rabbit digimon firmly attached to his head. There was also a young girl with red hair the distinct color of autumn leaves and harsh, shocking purple eyes. She always wore some sort of scowl on her features, although a closer look often revealed the corners of her mouth were turned upward, as if some amount of joy or happiness was trying to make its presence known. A yellow kitsune was always within arm's reach of the female tamer, constantly present but never overbearing. Her muscled, lean, and decidedly feminine figure was complimented by a flowing tail and purple gauntlets, which were often crossed across the digimon's taught stomach.

With those four being the only constant beings in every picture, there were other people and digimon smiling out of the glossy cards as well. One was another young girl, an odd sock puppet firmly attached to one of her hands. In one picture she sat on the shoulder of a massive Leomon, but in all of the others she held a small white and purple bouncy digimon close to her body. Another teen boy appeared in numerous pictures alongside a hulking digimon that was reminiscent of a demon pulled straight out of Renaissance artwork. The young man appeared to be a bit older than the rest of his counterparts, and exuded an inflated sense of self-importance. Along with the cockiness he also seemed to be quite confident in himself, which added personality to his good looks. Two more young men were also in several of Takato's pictures. What set them apart from everyone else is that they were always laughing in every frame. They clearly owned the two digimon that appeared close to them, one a massive, clumsy looking robot and the other akin to a small, winged, pink Tomogachi brought to life. One of the boys wore square glasses and some sort of collared shirt; the other a flat billed hat. Takato himself was only in a handful of photos, mostly because he was often behind the camera rather than in front of it.

At the moment the young tamer was ensconced in a high-backed office chair, hunched over a bright laptop. His fingers flew over the keys, producing streams of words on the LCD screen in front of him. No music was playing and there was a mysterious lack of drawing supplies around Takato. In typical Matsuki fashion the young man had put off his homework until the last possible hour. This was the usual modus operandi for Takato, and over the years the teen had developed his unique form of procrastination into an art.

This assignment was one of several Takato had hammered out in the past three hours that were due on the eve of winter break. They were substantial pieces of work, and were meant to be semester-long assignments. Obviously the professors had never met Takato.

Finally on the last of his papers, the young man was racing the clock. While the professor who assigned this particular project was usually quite adamant about students handing in their assignments in person, she had finally relented and made an exception for Takato due to the fact that she was quite tired of a drenched young man and a heaving reptile knocking down her office door at odd hours of the night. Instead Takato was to e-mail his work to her, something the tamer greatly appreciated.

After staggering through the last paragraph of a fifteen page essay concerning the effect of rare earth minerals on the Japanese economy, Takato attached the document to an e-mail and sent it off without a second thought.

A hollow thud emanated from Takato's wooden desk as he banged his head on his desk. Too tired and brain-dead to care about the dull ache now coursing through his skull, the tamer let out a victory groan.

Guilmon's reptilian ears perked up at this, "Food now?"

Takato unleashed an almighty snort, "It has been a whole hour hasn't it?"

Pushing himself to his feet, the teen stretched out, extending his arms towards the ceiling. This elicited a chorus of pops and cracks, and Takato grimaced as he felt his tense muscles straighten out.

"I suppose we could head down to the market and find something." Said Takato as he pulled a jacket around his shoulders.

Guilmon stretched out in a manner similar to a dog, opening his maw wide to display the rows of razor sharp, hooked teeth he had. Takato snatched up his keys and wallet, and turned to leave his room. He walked out the door and heard Guilmon shut it behind him, the digimon's claws clicking on the metal knob.

"Lead the way boy." Said Takato as he felt Guilmon brush past him and slink down the hallway.

Mindlessly the young tamer tapped out a simple text message on his phone as he followed Guilmon down the stairs, the reptile apparently too impatient to wait for the elevator.

"_Food?" _Was all that the message read. Takato was far to fried to formulate any sort of coherent sentence on a screen at the moment, but it didn't really matter. The addressee, Rika, would know what the message meant. Or so Takato hoped.

As Takato shuffled his way through the foyer of the dormitory his pocket vibrated. Pulling out his phone, the young man flicked the screen on and glanced over the reply from Rika. "_See you there"_

The young man let out a short grunt and shoved his phone back into his pants. Normally he would have asked Rika how she knew where he and Guilmon were headed and when they were planning on leaving, but at the moment the tamer did not have the energy or willpower to care.

Takato was more concerned at the moment with the torrential downpour that he had just stepped into. Within five seconds every exposed bit of skin was inundated with rain, and the crimson-eyed tamer frowned as he felt his jeans begin to stick to his legs.

Guilmon on the other hand did not seem to mind the vicious, freezing rain. All that mattered to the digimon at the moment was getting to the rows of restaurants situated across the street from the university campus. Guilmon was obviously familiar with the route, and the anxious dinosaur would often scamper far ahead and then double back to check on his tamer.

It was plain to see that Guilmon was frustrated with Takato's slow progress, but the tamer only chuckled every single time his digimon bounced back into view. The young man was content to meander along the brick and concrete paths connecting the campus, enjoying the fresh air and stinging rain. Anything was better than a stuffy dormitory room at this point as far as Takato was concerned.

Guilmon skittered around the latest corner yet again, folding his ears back and dipping his head low as he sent a low, whining growl in Takato's direction. His thick tail swayed back and forth as the digimon shifted his weight from foot to foot, anxious energy emanating from the reptile.

"The vendors aren't going anywhere boy." Grunted Takato in response to his digimon's pleading.

"I know but… what if they do leave? With the food?" Guilmon ran in a nervous circle around Takato, apparently having scared himself.

The young tamer could do nothing but sigh. "Then you're fucked."

Another low growl came from Guilmon, his yellow eyes nervously scanning Takato. "Well… can you please please please walk faster? Please?"

"Guilmon," Takato turned his hooded gaze towards his digimon, "You'll be fine."

The crimson reptile responded by sticking his tongue out at his tamer, clearly still annoyed with Takato's slow gait.

After several more minutes of navigating the university's campus, Takato walked onto the streets of downtown Tokyo. He followed the dull red mass that was Guilmon as the digimon weaved his way through the rain soaked crowds of pedestrians. The luminescent advertisements situated on the buildings soaring overhead provided constant light to the busy square, the downpour giving the lights an ethereal glow.

As Takato turned on his heel and meandered down a side street that had been set up as an open air market, a familiar scent made its presence known. While Takato's senses where just like those of every other human being, for some reason he had always been able to discriminate and separate familiar smells. He figured that it was probably from growing up in a bakery; as his job had required him to discern different types of bread by their scents alone. Stopping and turning around, a small grin flitted over the young tamer's features as he confirmed the owner of the scent.

Rika Nonaka was winding her way through the open-air market towards Takato. Her orange hair was hidden underneath the hood of her white rain jacket; the jacket itself pulled tightly around the teen. Rika's jeans were just as soaked as Takato's, and her bright green shoes were now a dull shade of evergreen.

"Did you implant a tracking beacon in me?" Said Takato with a wry grin as Rika came and stood before him.

"I don't need one, according to Renamon you emanate such a strong odor of dough and peanut butter that you make Guilmon hard to find." Rika blew a drop of rain off of her nose, her voice tinged with frustration.

"Ummm… Is that a good thing?" Takato sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck with one hand.

Rika rolled her eyes, "Goggledork… So we're feeding the bottomless digimon again?"

The crimson eyed tamer nodded and looked over his shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of Guilmon.

"Yeah…" He murmured, his roving gaze coming to rest on his the thick head of his digimon, which was currently swiveling back and forth, searching for something.

Rika turned to follow Takato's line of site, curious as to what he was looking at. The young man heard her let out a low sigh as she saw Guilmon's crimson and ivory head hoisted as high as the digimon could lift it.

Takato watched as Guilmon ducked back down to his normal height, and loped his way over to one of the many open-air grills.

"Shall we?" Asked the young tamer.

"I suppose." Responded a feminine, flowing voice.

Despite his exhaustion Takato jerked his body forwards in shock and surprise. He spun to look at the new, previously unannounced presence. Behind the young man and Rika stood a damp Renamon. In typical fashion Rika's digimon had decided against making her arrival known, instead choosing to drop in on the conversation when she felt it to be necessary.

"Holy… Gah Renamon can't you just..." Takato clenched his jaw for a second, and then released the tension, "Nevermind."

"Can't I just what?" Asked Renamon, the kitsune genuinely inquisitive.

Takato walked off towards the grill his digimon was situated at, his shoulders slumping in exasperation. Rika and Renamon followed him, the digimon queen sporting an amused twinkle in her eyes. But the young man did not mirror his girlfriend's amusement; Takato instead had a feeling of hollowness cleaning out his frame.

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing." Takato took a seat next to his Guilmon, whose thick reptilian tail was wagging with gaining ferocity.

"What's up with you?" Asked Rika, straightforward as usual.

"I'm tired." Murmured the crimson-eyed teen.

Before Rika could respond a young girl shuffled out from behind the curtain that hid the kitchen from view, laden down with plates. With a clatter of porcelain she dumped the food-laden plates down in front of Guilmon, the eager reptile burying his maw in the chicken, rice and fish entrees.

"Is that all for him?" Barked a gruff man, waving a spatula at Guilmon through a wide window in the wall that separated the kitchen of the grill from the rest of the shop.

"Yep." Answered Takato, glancing over at his saurian digimon.

"Ai-yah…" Grumbled the chef, throwing his hands up in the air before returning to his grill.

"Takato you're always tired," Chastised Rika, "Come on now."

"My brain is just a bit mushy right now." Takato waved off his girlfriend, mildly distracted by the void filling his body.

"Alright well don't say I didn't ask." Rika held up two fingers, and the waitress responded by placing two cups of tea in front of her.

The girl pushed one of the cups over to Renamon, and put the other up to her lips to sip on the steaming contents.

Takato noticed the events taking place around him, but paid them no heed. He was content with staring at the stack of plates on the counter inside the grill and letting his brain disengage from the world. He was drifting through the realms of Takato-land for about twenty minutes before the young man was pulled back into reality by a swift kick to the shins.

"Wuh?" Murmered Takato, wincing as he received another jab from Rika.

"Glad to see you're back astronaut." Rika said with a smirk, "I've got a proposition for you."

"Let's hear it."

"My mom is coordinating a photo-shoot in Dubai to promote Dubai Fashion Week. Want to come? We're only staying for a week." Rika took a sip of her tea and looked over the young man across from her reproachfully.

Takato withdrew his mind from its hibernation and forced himself to analyze what the red head next to him had just said. While the invitation sounded enticing, the young tamer immediately thought of his parents and the family bakery. Wait…. Dubai?

"Wait… Like the UAE city Dubai? With the palm tree and world beaches?" Takato slowly wrapped his already exhausted brain around what Rika had said.

The digimon queen's violet eyes were briefly flecked with amusement, "No stupid, the other Dubai."

Guilmon emerged briefly from his food orgy to advise his tamer, "Takatomon I think Rika is being sarcastic."

"Thank you, I had no idea." Grumbled Takato, the teen taking a second to muse over Rika's proposition.

"Well it would be great to go, but I don't want to leave my parents alone at the bakery this time of year. This is one of our busiest months, what with the holidays and everything." Takato spun on his stool to bring himself face-to-face with his girlfriend.

"Good point," Mused Rika, "Is there any way they could hire Kazu or Kenta to fill your place while you're gone? I know those two have worked in that bakery almost as much as you have."

"That's not a bad idea, I just…." The hazard tamer rubbed the back of his neck, "I don't know…."

"Look, you need a break. Either you can choose to come willingly or I'll make you get on the plane." Rika raised a semi-threatening eyebrow to back up her promise of violence.

"A break from what?" Protested Takato.

"Umm let's see," Said the fiery female tamer in a mocking tone, "Our last vacation was interrupted by a terrorist attack, and just recently I watched you tear close to thirty digimon apart with your bare hands alone."

"Hey now I…"

"Takato, stop trying. You know how these things go." The young tamer flicked his crimson gaze towards the yellow kitsune that had chided him.

Renamon responded with a rather imperious look of her own, and Takato sighed in defeat.

"I'll work it out with my parents." Takato felt a grin make itself known on his features; despite his lame protests the teen was actually rather excited by the thought of going to Dubai.

Not only was he going to a world-renowned pinnacle of indulgence and wealth, but the young man was completely obligation-free during this vacation. There were no press conferences to attend, no fans to meet, and no parents around to nag him. That meant Takato would be able to spend more time with Rika, a thought that the teen reveled in.

"Good." Rika took another sip of her tea, "You might want to talk to them soon though, we're leaving Sunday morning."

This got Takato's attention.

"But that's two days away! No, less than two days away!" Spluttered the tamer.

"You might want to call your parents and start packing instead of saving everything until Sunday morning." Said Rika, throwing a stern look in Takato's direction over her cup.

"Alright alright, I'll call my parents when I get back to my room…" The young tamer grinned loosely at Rika, who narrowed her eyes menacingly.

"Just call them now."

"But I can just…"

"NOW TAKATO." Snapped Rika, the digimon queen accenting her demand with a sharp kick to the shins.

Takato groaned and pulled out his cellphone. He held down a button and pressed the phone to his ear as the display lit up.

_Three hours later_

Takato was jamming freshly-laundered clothes into a large green duffel bag without any apparent regard for organization. While most normal people would calculate out the precise amount of clothing to take on a trip, the hazard tamer could not be bothered with such trivialities. The crimson-eyed young man had decided the best way to assure he wouldn't forget anything was to pack literally everything.

As Takato shoved another pair of shorts on top of his toothbrush and showering kit, he heard his door open. Guilmon had gone out earlier to wander the city with Renamon, and Takato expected to hear the signature click of claws on metal. The tamer did not immediately recognize any familiar sounds, so he turned to find out who his visitor was.

To Takato's mild surprise he beheld Rika standing in his doorway, clad in sweats and a t-shirt that Takato was pretty sure had belonged to him at one point in time.

"Are you really trying to shove all of your earthly possessions into one bag?" Asked Rika as she sauntered in, closing the door behind her.

"Well I don't want to forget anything." Said Takato with a shrug.

"Dammit gogglehead…" Groaned Rika.

Takato adjusted the goggles around his neck defensively. He had been forced to stop wearing his signature yellow goggles soon after the Locomon event thanks to constant nagging from his mother and the fact that he could barely see through the lenses anymore. The tamer had replaced the yellow goggles with a pair of 1940's aviation goggles, much to the chagrin of every female in his life.

The fiery red-head noticed Takato tugging at his beloved goggles, and smirked.

"Takato you know I despise fashion and everything it stands for, but you really need to ditch those goggles."

The young tamer responded by sticking his tongue out at Rika, admonishing her in the most juvenile fashion possible.

"You worry me." Grunted the violet-eyed teen as she took a seat next to Takato.

"Says the insane firecrotch to her otherwise normal boyfriend." Retorted the young man.

The tamer instantly regretted his comeback as Rika's fist slammed into his arm, deadening the entire limb.

"Ever since I met you I stopped telling people they hit like a girl." Grunted Takato as he rubbed his latest bruise.

"The mighty Takato is scared of a girl?" Snickered Rika.

"You wish princess." Retorted Takato as he pushed the Digimon Queen over.

Rika did not resist Takato's playful shove in any way, the tamer flopping over onto the carpet. Stretching out all four of her limbs as far as they would go, the Ice Queen yawned mightily.

"You haven't called me princess in a while." Murmured Rika, adjusting her breasts underneath the t-shirt absentmindedly.

Takato yanked the zipper on his overflowing bag shut, hoping that he had everything he needed. He fell backwards onto the floor to lie next to Rika, and for the first time that day allowed his brain to relax.

The young man's moment of peace was short lived. Takato watched as Rika rolled over and got onto her knees, and then climbed on top of him. She straddled him and sat down on his lower stomach, and Takato grinned as his girlfriend eyed him malevolently.

Wasting no time with words, Rika slid her hands underneath Takato's t-shirt and pushed the fabric up to reveal taught muscles. The Digimon Queen wiggled and grinned like a child in a candy store as her prisoner shivered, her icy touch making Takato squirm.

"I've been doing finals all day," Moaned Takato, "I honestly do not have the brain power to comprehend what is going on."

Tugging the young man's shirt off, Rika leaned in to nuzzle Takato's neck.

"Good." She whispered.

"Good?" Sputtered the tamer, attempting to lift his head up.

The Digimon Queen nipped Takato's neck, "Don't argue."

The young tamer gulped and laid his head back down, his frame pulsing as Rika's soft lips worked their way around his neck and collarbone, her soft hands exploring his upper body. Takato slid his eyes shut and released some of the tension from his shivering muscles, allowing pleasure to course through his body.

His wandering hands finding the bottom of Rika's worn shirt, Takato grasped the soft fabric and pulled the t-shirt up the Ice Queen's lithe frame. There was no resistance coming from the girl straddling him, so Takato tugged the obstructing bit of clothing off. As he did so his fingers brushed over a bit of lace, sending another flood of endorphins coursing through his system.

Flinging the shirt across the room without a second thought, Rika sank lower and pressed her body against Takato's. A haze of pleasure filled the tamer's mind as the Rika's smooth, warm, taught body wrapped itself around his. Lace scratched at his chest, and Takato lifted his head and looked down to see that while she may be wearing sweats, the Digimon Queen still wore a rather revealing crimson bra.

Rika squeezed her thighs together and sat up, the sides of her mouth turned upwards in a blatantly evil grin. Reaching down she unbuttoned Takato's jeans with a quick tug, pulled the zipper down and yanked the denim off of the young man's frame. The young man groaned as Rika's hand brushed over his bulging groin, the young man's boxers fighting to contain his erection. This fueled the Ice Queen's fire, and her grin grew wider as she massaged the taught fabric beneath her.

"Ohhh fuck…" Grunted Takato, releasing a sharp gasp as Rika squeezed his swollen member.

Ceasing her examination, Rika reached up behind herself and unhooked her bra. She let the fabric slide off in a rather undignified fashion, exposing her firm breasts and pink nipples. Takato felt his heart start to thump loudly inside of his ribcage, facilitating the tumultuous floods of pleasure and ecstasy focused on his groin. The young man felt his breath catch as Rika slid her hands up her athletic from. The Digimon Queen splayed her fingers over her taught stomach muscles and slowly moved her hands upward, the malicious twinkle in her violet eyes building as she watched the young man beneath her fight back waves of testosterone. Rika's hands glided over her ribs and came up to cup her breasts, the young girl still eyeing Takato as she pinched one of her nipples.

The Hazard Tamer felt his girlfriend position herself so that her butt caressed his erection, the young man groaning as Rika decided to sway her hips ever so slightly.

"Good boy." Murmured Rika as she laid back down, pressing her breasts up against Takato's naked chest.

Wrapping his arms around the girl above him, Takato dug his fingers into Rika's back and raked downward. This produced a gasp of pain and ecstasy from Rika. She buried her head in Takato's neck, erect nipples digging into the teen's skin. With one hand Takato reached down and caressed Rika's chin, lifting her face up to his. Lips already slightly parted, the Ice Queen took the initiative and drove herself into Takato. The young man's heart thumped in surprise as he felt a pair of soft, feminine lips meet his own.

Ignoring his mental exhaustion Takato reached down and engulfed Rika's ass in his grasp and pulled her in closer. He met her kiss eagerly, but for some reason Rika was rather aggressive this evening. Takato felt the Digimon Queen shudder as he squeezed her round ass, her wet lips engulfing his. As he hooked his thumbs on the waistband of Rika's sweatpants, Takato felt another bit of lace meet his fingers. Wild thoughts coursed through his head, and the young man's endorphin-soaked mind egged him on. Takato tugged Rika's sweatpants down as far as they would go, revealing her perfectly formed butt. The young man pushed his lips upwards into Rika's, drawing in her taste and progressively sloppier kisses.

It was apparent that Rika had no intentions of wasting any time. She lifted one leg and in one deft movement yanked her sweats off and heaved them to the opposite side of the room. Takato gasped slightly as he felt naked, warm skin press up against him. Every hair stood up on the young man's body as Rika enveloped him, her angelic form rubbing up against his. Heat radiated from Rika's crotch, and as Takato massaged Rika's supple butt he could not help but drive his throbbing, restricted member up against the Ice Queen's damp groin.

"Woah there cowboy…" Whispered Rika lustily as she separated her lips from Takato's.

"Cowboy?" Slurred Takato as he watched Rika start to slither down his muscled body.

The Digimon Queen neglected to respond, instead choosing to decorate Takato's body with licks, nips and wet kisses as she made her way lower and lower. Takato jerked slightly as Rika's breasts slid over his swollen dick, electric impulses of pleasure roaring from his member to his brain. He could feel Rika's erect nipples catch on the fabric and push against his member. Combined with the feelings the trail of kisses drawing ever lower generated, Takato was having trouble controlling himself.

Takato rolled his head back and rested it on the carpet, basking in the warmth coursing through his body. He felt soft fingers grasp the waistband of his boxers, and the Hazard Tamer gasped as his swollen dick was suddenly released from its confinement. He felt Rika wrap her hand around his shaft and start to stroke his dick in a somewhat uncertain manner. Yet her confidence seemed to be increased by Takato's involuntary shudders, the young man digging his fingers into the carpet.

Without warning a warm, moist sensation enveloped the tip of Takato's cock. Stars danced before the young man's eyes, and his groin twitched eagerly. Rika's tongue flicked over the hole and crown and she experimented with Takato's cock, the young man not minding in the slightest. Again he felt the warm sensation, but this time it was clear Rika was much more confident. The young man felt Rika envelop a good part of his throbbing member in her mouth, her wet tongue sliding all along his shaft. Slowly Rika started to slide up and down, using her tongue to tease the head of Takato's dick. The young man could barely think with the fog of pleasure enveloping his brain. The warmth from Rika's mouth pulsed outward from his dick, causing Takato to unwillingly flex and relax his muscles.

"Move… move your ass up here." Gasped Takato, jerking slightly as Rika slid the head of his cock down her throat.

The young girl obeyed, shuffling to place her perfectly formed ass right above Takato's face. He reasoned that she probably knew what he was getting at, but at this point he really didn't care. Takato reached up and tore off the bit of fabric that covered Rika's soaked cunt. He pushed Rika's thong down around her knees and wasted no time in getting back at his girlfriend for the torture she was putting him through.

Parting the lips of her vagina with a single finger, Takato found Rika's clit quickly. Idly he flicked a finger over the stiff nub several times, his ministrations causing the Digimon Queen to moan deeply around his dick. Fighting through the haze of pleasure, he pulled Rika's dripping pussy towards himself and buried his tongue in its folds. The tart taste of her juices flooded his senses, and Takato felt Rika shudder from a quick orgasm. The young man used his tongue to massage her clit, Rika's chest heaving with pleasure.

Rika increased the rhythm of her ministrations, and Takato noted that she was a rather quick learner when it came to giving head. He could feel her throat constricted the head of his cock as her tongue fondled the rest of him, generating feelings of pleasure that nearly blinded Takato. He retaliated by sliding two fingers into Rika's slick hole, something that the young girl clearly enjoyed based upon her moans and the fact that she drove her hips down onto Takato's fingers. The muscles in Rika's pussy caressed Takato's fingers as he thrust in and out of her soaked cunt, her clit begging for more teasing from Takato's tongue.

Yet as he felt another orgasm course through Rika's athletic frame, Takato felt his own orgasm start to build. The beast in his lower stomach started to thrash about; heat building up slowly in the young man's groin. Takato concentrated on Rika and curved his fingers inside of his girlfriend's cunt, rubbing a new area. This apparently sent the Ice Queen over the edge again, sweat dripping off of her body as she let out a loud moan. Instead of slowing down Rika sped up her sucking, lost in the constant orgasms she was having.

Trying as he might, Takato could not hold back to tides of his own coming orgasm. Struggling to continue fingering Rika, he thrust his hips upward. The young girl greeted his thrusts eagerly, shoving Takato's cock down her throat again and again. The Hazard Tamer withdrew his shaking fingers and instead opted to drive Rika insane with his tongue.

The blinding heat of an orgasm became too much for Takato to bear. He gasped for air as he released into Rika's mouth, instantly worried that he had not warned her. Yet to his surprise she drank his cum in eagerly, something Takato was not expecting at all. Rika swallowed everything that Takato put out, even going so far as the use her hand to stroke a bit more cum out. Suffice to say this was the best feeling Takato had ever experienced in his life so far. The burning heat of the orgasm, coupled with the soft, feminine touch of Rika's mouth was something Takato had only previously dreamed about.

At this point both teens were shaking, covered in sweat and obviously exhausted. Rika toppled over onto her side and lay gasping next to Takato, the young man himself heaving.

"Damn." Grunted the Hazard Tamer.

"Yeah." Gasped Rika in response.

Both tamers lay sprawled out on the carpet in silence, trying to catch their breath. After several minutes of peace Takato sat up and snatched a water bottle out from his refrigerator. He took a swig and handed the bottle to Rika.

"You aren't half bad at this whole boyfriend thing." Said Rika as she gulped down half of the contents of the bottle.

Takato shot her an exhausted but goofy grin, "You're doing just fine yourself princess."

The young man dodged the Nalgene that was half-heartedly chucked at his head and pushed Rika over. Standing over her on all fours he planted a gentle kiss on the Digimon Queen's lips.

"Thanks for helping me pack."

"Asshole."


	24. Chapter 24

**Sorry about being away for so long. Thanks for your continued interest; hopefully I continue to live up to your standards! Just a side note but I know fuck-all about the night life in Tokyo.**

_The air was filled with the smell of cheap beer, fried food and gaudy perfume; it throbbed in time with the collective baseline emanating from the dozen or so clubs and bars that lined the street. Harried-looking salarymen flowed around packs of excited teenager and chattering schoolchildren, the flowing masses of humanity turning the sidewalks into crowded rivers. Gleaming LCD screens bedecked the skyscrapers that loomed over the bustling streets, the massive screens adding garish color to the already energetic scene. There were few places as violently electric as Tokyo on a summer Friday evening, and there was nowhere else Takato would have rather been. _

_This night out had by no means been a planned one, Takato had woken up that morning with the goal of going back to sleep as soon as humanly possible. A phone call from Kazu was all it took for the young tamer to forego his original plans. It was, after all, the last summer that they would all most likely be spending together. After consuming a fair bit of beer waiting for Kenta at the Matsuki Bakery, the trio collected a rather reluctant Henry and made their way to the pulsating Shibuya ward. _

_Clearing his throat and setting his glass back down, Takato idly toyed with the goggles around his neck. The hazard tamer felt the corners of his mouth twitch as he embraced the warm, blissful fog that permeated his alcohol-addled brain. Each glass of beer consumed added volume and viscosity to the fog, and in turn added breadth and vigor to the dopey smile bedecking the young man's visage. The clack of pool balls and the jubilant clink of glasses brought Takato back reality; a feeling of happy disappointment washed over him as watched the last of the marble balls sail into various pockets. Henry and Kenta downed the contents of the glasses in a single go; upon finishing the blue haired young man thrust his frothy, empty glass into the air in celebration of their victory._

_"Next rounds' on you boys." Grunted Kenta, stifling a burp._

_"Fine fine, but we're done with Japanese 9-ball." Said Kazu, motioning to the bartender, "I'm beginning to think Takato and I offended the pool gods."_

_"Fair enough, what are we playing next then?" Henry wrapped his hand around a fresh drink and brought it to his lips, the tamer consuming the liquid eagerly._

_With a gentle inclination of his head Kazu indicated what appeared to be a pair of massive Taiko drums connected to a large arcade machine._

_An alcohol-stained guffaw burst forth, unbidden, from Takato. "Is that… DDR with Taiko's?"_

_"Let's find out." Grinned Henry, the normally coordinated tamer catching the tip of his pool cue with his foot and stumbling a bit._

_Takato's inebriated guess as to how the game would play proved to be spot on, much to the delight of the tamers. They each took turns flailing away with the oversized drumsticks, the young men becoming increasingly worse at the game as the night went on. Yet the increasing magnitude of their failings only proved to be a source of continued hilarity; the tamer's attempts at other arcade games proved to similarly futile. This mattered little to the young men; they were far too concerned with reveling in each other's company. _

_Several hours and clubs later, the team was still going strong. Their celebrity status granted them instant access to any bar they chose, regardless of the size of the crowd outside. Despite the constant stream of free drinks flowing in their general direction, Takato had made the surprisingly mature decision to moderate his alcohol consumption. The same could not be said for Henry. Normally restrained and reluctant, the deeply tan young man seemed to have broken free of his moral bindings. _

_"He'll fit in well in America." Murmured Kenta as Henry, a drink in each hand, submerged himself in a mass of giggling girls._

_Kazu snorted bemusedly, "Am I the only one who's sort of jealous?"_

_"No."_

_"Thanks chumly."_

_Oddly silent, Takato decided against vocalizing his solidarity and instead chose to maintain the dopey half smile that had been plastered on his face for the majority of the evening. He was far too busy basking in the moment to remove himself from his stupor. A vibration out of tune with the baseline of the current song being played suddenly coursed through the hazard tamer's form. Struggling to comprehend what could possibly be causing this irregularity, Takato reflexively slapping his hands down on top of his pockets. _

_"Oh. One sec."_

_Jamming his left hand into his pocket, the tamer weaved his way through the steaming club-goers out into the far quieter lobby. Ignoring the questioning looks of his friends, Takato instead focused his energies on finding the answer key on his phone. Neglecting to look at who the call was being placed by, the young man thumbed the answer button and pressed the phone to his ear._

_"Matuski Baaakery, this is Takato, how…. Oh. Darn. I mean… errrmmmm… hello?"_

_There was a brief pause on the other end, "Goggle-idiot."_

_"Princess."_

_Alcohol-soaked brain kicking into overdrive, Takato frantically cast about for a reason as to why one Rika Nonaka, the Ice Queen, would be calling him late on a Friday night._

_"What'sss up?" Asked Takato, doing his best to appear unfazed._

_"Have… have you been drinking?"_

_"Have YOU been drinking?" Blurted the hazard tamer in what he hoped was a snarky reply._

_Another pause. "Sort offff… Look. I need you to come get-t me." Even though his brain was cloaked in fog Takato was able to detect the slight drunken, nervous waver in Rika's tone._

_"Are you alright?" Concern for the fiery red-head cut through his murky thoughts like a hot knife, the blade beating back the mist. _

_"Ohyeahtottalllyy…" Slurred the Digimon Queen, "I just need yooouuuu to come pick me up and take me home."_

_"Normally I would already be on my way but…" Takato cast a glance over his shoulder, "I'm a bit busy. Can't Renamon come and get you?"_

_This produced the longest pause yet._

_"Rika?"_

_"Sheee can't…Beecaause…. I'm at…" Rika ended her sentence with an indiscernible mumble. _

_"What? You're where?" _

_"…Ryo's." _

_A veritable fountain of emotions began to gush in Takato's chest, feelings of rage, jealously, pain, betrayal and more coursing through his body with a vengeance. While these emotions had no basis, there was something about that guy and the way that Rika said his name that enraged Takato._

_Unable and unwilling to hold back the venom in his voice, he snarled into the receiver "Then have him walk you home."_

_The physical force poured into that simple statement carried with it a good measure of the rage that the hazard tamer was truly capable of wielding, an unbelievable power that Rika had seen firsthand. _

_Takato heard a stifled gasp on the other end of the line and, in spite of himself, smirked at the thought of Rika forcing herself to bite her tongue. Despite his anger, the tamer did not hang up. _

_"He had a party, I was invited, I had a bit too much to drink and I'm done now. Takato, I need you to come and get me." Rika inhaled shakily, "You know I can't go home by myself."_

_Rika's original demand had transformed into a plea, and the reasoning behind it helped to ground Takato. He knew why Rika refused to wander the streets alone, and he had no intention of letter her do so. Furthermore, after a particularly bad break-up Renamon had made her intense dislike of Ryo known, and made it clear that if she had did not want Rika going anywhere near the Digimon King ever again. Rika most likely knew that by going to Ryo's party she would be making her digimon unspeakably furious, yet for some reason she decided to go anyways._

_Takato grimaced as he attempted to understand the reasoning behind Rika's decision. He was going to get her, that was a forgone conclusion, but he was still having a hard time containing his fury._

_"Lizard bo-…. Err.. Takato?"_

_"Yeah." Snapped the young man, "Yeah I'm on my way." _

_Ending the call, Takato stormed back inside the club. Giving a quick explanation to Kazu and Kenta, he bid them farewell and strode out of the club. _

_Dodging throngs of people, Takato worked his way towards the soaring apartment complex Ryo resided in. The warm summer air flowed around the tamer's lithe form, the mixture of cool ocean wind and leftover heat from the previous day's furious sun embracing the sweaty teen. While the tamer was genuinely annoyed that Rika had essentially forcibly dragged him away from an otherwise pleasant evening with his friends, Takato was having a hard time staying angry at Rika. With each step the young man took he found himself becoming less upset with the Ice Queen. Despite the fiercely independent personality that Rika maintained, Takato still, for some reason, operated as if she were his charge. It was almost as if there was an unspoken agreement between the tamers that Takato was, for better or worse, the leader of their group. As such, the Hazard tamer felt that it was his job to look after his fellow tamers as best he could. Even if that meant retrieving an inebriated Rika from the Digimon King's abode._

_As Takato swerved garishly through the oncoming crowds, he dopily mused over the Rika-Ryo saga. They had gone on several dates a few months after the D-Reaper incident and had become 'official' shortly after that. Despite Rika's callous, tomboy personality it was easy to see she was head-over-heels for Ryo. Henry had expressed his doubts regarding the pair's relationship to Takato. Ryo was clever, polite, and confident in both himself and his abilities. While Rika was devilishly smart and kind in her own way, she still maintained a substantial inferiority complex. This was what worried Henry. Ryo could be likened to a conquistador when it came to women and relationships. After sticking his flag in the ground and taking what spoils were to be had, the Digimon King would then terminate the relationship with the unfortunate girl and move on. By the time Ryo had begun making advances on Rika, word of his modus operandi had been spread far and wide by his multitudes of scorned lovers. Apparently Rika had not heard the news on the street and despite her fiercely independent and purported hatred of Ryo she quickly fell victim to the young man's well-practiced inroads. Takato's Rousseau-ish ideals initially caused him to brush aside his friend's fears but as time went on, the teen was found himself reluctantly echoing Henry's sentiments. _

_After naught but two months Ryo seemed to give up on his relationship with Rika. The relationship between the Digimon King and the Digimon Queen became one of need; the Queen needed and constantly pined for her King but the latter had moved on. In Ryo's eyes it seemed that Rika had devolved and had become little more than an object. When he needed a companion; someone to use; something to provide him with a measure of pleasure he called Rika, and she came running. She barely spoke to any of the tamers, and when she did her tone was that of hollow enthusiasm. While she said she was happy about her relationship, even Guilomon could see through the tamer's half-hearted façade. What disgusted the tamers more than anything was that Ryo had no problem with blatantly using Rika, despite the obviously negligent effects. She became a gaunt, hollow shell of her once spunky self. Takato spent many a night in the company of Kazu, Kenta and Henry discussing Rika after a few beers. In truth it had more Takato drunkenly musing about Rika and the others listening in bemused silence, but after one particularly enlightening evening Kazu had made considerably plastered Takato admit that he might be a bit more than concerned about Rika. Or, in Takato's words: "It's not like I want to fuck her… well okay I do but… Yeah. I like…. Want to take her out for coffee… And dinner… and to the Sakura garden…. And…. THEN I want to fuck her, after we've built a solid… relationship. Becausssse… I really like her. Y'know?"_

_'I wonder if she'll be happy to see me…' mused Takato innocently as he loped towards Ryo's apartment, 'I hope she isn't crying… then again….'_

_Shaking his head violently, the tamer dispelled the flood of deviant thoughts and yearnings that had suddenly flooded his brain. He may have some feelings for her but Takato was positive that the feelings were in no way mutual. He was her friend, nothing more. A close friend, a dear friend, but nothing more than a friend. At last that was what his brain told him. His heart and his dick disagreed._

_Takato cut himself off and returned to reality as he looked upward. He was less than a block away from Ryo's apartment complex. Unsure of what he might find on the other side of the crosswalk, Takato sighed nervously and powered through a crowd of stumbling gaijin tourists. As he neared the ornate entrance to the upper-class complex, the young man clumsily squinted in an attempt to pick out his objective. As he drunkenly strode towards the soaring marble columns and emotionless doormen, he heard someone bark is name out behind him. Spinning lazily on his heels, Takato turned and saw one Rika Nonaka leaning up against the wall of the building._

_"Rika?" Spluttered the young man as he struggled to stabilize himself._

_The digimon queen attempted to push herself into a standing position but failed to apply enough force to the wall. As such she stumbled a bit as she fell back into the wall. Cursing under her breath, the inebriated tamer straightened up and stalked over to Takato._

_"Hey..y." Normally vibrant eyes hazy with alcoholic fog, Rika struggled to maintain her infamously rigid stature despite the fact that her center of balance was shifting rapidly._

_Heart thumping in his chest, Takato blinked rapidly in an attempt to get a clearer picture of the girl standing before him._

_"How are… how are you?" The hazard tamer nervously adjusted his goggles and tried his best to drown the awkward emotions burbling just below his navel._

_"Fine," Snarled Rika, her breath tainted with the sting of vodka, "Let's go."_

_"Hey Rika hold on just a second!" _

_The Ice Queen, who had started walking immediately after informing Takato of their departure, ground to a jerking halt._

_"What? Need a breather lardass?"_

_Disappointment washing over him, Takato sighed and shook his head sloppily. With a sigh he gathered his senses and started off after Rika, stumbling over himself as he went._

_Wafting his way through the still mildly steady flow of foot traffic while desperately trying to keep an eye on Rika's salmon pea coat, the young tamer struggled pierce the alcoholic fog that permeated his mind and correlate his thoughts. Eventually Takato managed to catch up to his charge, drawing nothing more than a glance as he did so._

_"So uhhh… how was the party?" _

_"Fine." Rika sighed sharply at Takato's clumsy attempt to start a friendly conversation._

_"Errr… Was Ryo there?"_

_"It was at his apartment."_

_"Oh heh right, right right…. Soooo ummm," Takato dodged a stumbling salary-man, "So how is Ryo?"_

_"Fine." Snarled Rika, her tone wavering._

_Taking the hint, Takato clamped his mouth shut and strode alongside the hunched-up Rika in silence._

_But despite his best intentions, austerity was not befitting of the hazard tamer. Although as he matured Takato had developed a measure of self-control, the alcohol he had consumed had saturated his barriers._

_Unfortunately for Takato, his imbibing had also dampened his self-preservation instincts._

_"Soooo how are you and Ryo?"_

_This inquiry drew a razor-sharp pause from Rika._

_"We're fine."_

_The word 'fine', when used by a woman, becomes an enigma. It can mean an innumerable amount of things. The new definition is often far removed from the dictionary definition of the adjective 'fine'. After spending years working with his mother in the family bakery, Takato knew the various definitions of the word 'fine' only too well. Sometimes the adjective was used in a positive context._

_In this case, Rika's use of 'fine' was not carrying a positive context._

_Unable to come up with a proper response, Takato instead decided to emulate a fish by opening and closing his mouth twice. Rika's cold and formless quips, designed to defuse the average conversation, did little more than encourage Takato._

_"So is that the same sort of 'fine' that Terriermon is after Suzy finishes dressing him up?"_

_Clenching her jaw and hanging a hard right down an alley, Rika's nostrils flared as she snapped at the Hazard Tamer._

_"No, it's the version of 'fine' that means we're fine, so fucking drop it and stop asking me about it."_

_Expediting her pace, the Ice Queen put a meter in between herself and her bumbling escort. Despite several drunkenly valiant attempts, Takato was unable to close the gap for a half-dozen blocks. The crowds soon thinned out as restaurants and business complexes gave way to small shops and residential buildings. No longer was the air filled with the smell of fried noodles and burnt petrol, the scents had been replaced by more suburban smells such as sun-warmed asphalt. The noise level dropped as Rika stalked closer to her house, the click of her shoes on pavement and the rustling of her jacket as she swung her stiff arms becoming increasingly audible. His path now mostly devoid of obstacles, Takato strode up to the Digimon Queen's side and matched her pace._

_"Rika, it's my job to ask you about it."_

_Bits of gravel and cement were ground against the asphalt as Rika came to a sudden halt just between the warm reaches of two streetlights. Shrouded in warm, semi-illuminated darkness, the Digimon Queen spun stiffly to face the startled Hazard Tamer._

_"Why the hell is it your job?" Snarled Rika, "Why would you want to know? My life shouldn't fucking matter to you moron; it DOESN'T matter to you."_

_"I'm asking because I care!" Expunged Takato, recoiling as Rika took a threatening step towards him._

_Raising her tensed fists in frustration, Rika stuck her face inches from Takato's._

_"And why do you care? Because you were the leader of our primary school pep squad? Because you defeated the D-reaper when the rest of us couldn't? Is that why? Is it because you feel obligated to GIVE A FUCK ABOUT ME JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE? ARE YOU SAYING THAT YOU CARE JUST SO THAT YOU CAN PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK LATER AND TELL EVERYONE THAT YOU LOOK AFTER THAT ANGRY, MISGUIDED, DEPPRESSED LITTLE RIKA NONAKA?"_

_Sharp knuckles, followed by clenched fingers balled up in a stiff palm impacted Takato's left oblique. He grunted more out of surprise than pain; the tamer had not been expecting a physical exclamation mark._

_"IS THAT WHY YOU CAME AND GOT ME? SO THAT I WOULDN'T THROW MYSELF IN FRONT OF A DAMN TRAIN? SO THAT YOU COULD STROKE YOUR EGO AFTER DROPPING ME OFF? OR WERE YOU HOPING THAT THE MASSIVE SLUT RIKA NONAKA WOULD STROKE SOMETHING ELSE? BECAUSE APPARENTLY I CAN'T KEEP MY PANTIES ON AROUND GUYS. DON'T TELL ME YOU FUCKING CARE ABOUT ME TAKATO. AT LEAST TREAT ME LIKE A PERSON AND TELL ME THE TRUTH."_

_The street was silent, save for the buzzing of fluorescent lights and the Ice Queen's ragged gasps seeping through her clenched teeth._

_He had known about the slippery slope Rika had been tumbling back down for some time. Takato had heard whispers of rumors, hints of gossip, and had seen numerous conversations on the web. While part of him wanted to ignore what he saw and allow his friend to lead her own life Takato, being Takato, found that impossibly difficult. The various possess of girls had, in their tittering's, talked from time to time about Ryo and Rika's relationship and her apparent… looseness. While the young man was amused by how hilariously unfounded and contrary to Rika's character the rumors were, at the back of his mind he was worried about how Rika would internalize the whisperings._

_His fears were apparently well grounded._

_"You know I'm terrible at lying to you Rika." Murmured Takato._

_He grunted as a solid fist smashed into his sternum._

_"You haven't hit me in a while."_

_Tears collected eye-shadow as they welled up in violet eyes. Petite fingers formed a trembling fist once again, and Takato involuntarily frowned as he felt the Digimon Queen's knuckles crash into his stomach. _

_Rika bowed her head, choking out a sob as she struck Takato for the third time. The blow melted upon impact, her fist turning into a quaking hand that grasped at the Hazard Tamer's shirt. Cool air kissed Takato's chest as Rika pulled on the fabric, her fingers losing color as she squeezed. Another gasping sob wracked Rika's frame, her carefully maintained becoming steadily wayward as she shook her head. _

_"S-ss-stop lying to m-me…" Rika choked on her words and gathered another handful of Takato's shirt in her remaining hand, "J-just tell me… just t-tell…"_

_Shoulders slackened and abdominals uncoiled as Takato gave lease to the torrent of emotions he often associated with the young girl before him. Storied concern, perennial self-disappointment and a deeply rooted mix of anger and protectiveness emanated from his cortex. The Hazard Tamer had developed an innate and inexplicable feeling of duty when it came to Rika. It was his nature to provide joy to the joyless, to provide comfort to the weak and tired, and to make those wracked by sadness and despair smile once again. Takato had tried to save Juri, but he had learned the harsh lesson that you cannot help those who are not willing to help themselves. The seeds planted by their initial rocky friendship had blossomed into something indescribable, something far removed from what he had ever felt for Juri. Takato refused to let Rika slip back into the nether._

_"I… Rika…." Takato cast around for the right words, his hazy mind unable to properly dictate the torrent of information crashing around in his mind._

_A frustrated whisper escaped Takato's lips following a healthy pause, "I… I've never wanted anything but for you to be happy… That's all I've ever wanted." _

_This admission tore at the young tamer, not because its contents were painful but because it did not come close to what Takato wanted to tell Rika._

_"Don't lie t-to me…." Sobbed the Digimon Queen as she leaned her head into the young man's chest, her quiet gasps now communicated into Takato._

_"Rika I… I can't lie to you. I'm… terrible at it. I… just…. Don't know how to tell you how I feel." What had started as a growl ended in a whisper, with the accidental admission forcing a nervous lump into Takato's throat._

_The fabric of Takato's shirt tightened around the back of his neck, Rika pulling more fabric into her clenched fists. No sound came from the young girl save for a shaky sob, no response was forthcoming._

_The scent of the Ice Queen's shampoo tickled Takato's nose, the soft tropical undertones sending notes of bemused pleasure wafting through the young man's alcohol ridden mind. Perfume was still something Rika rarely saw a need for, and the fact that she had forgone perfume tonight was something that gave Takato but a moment of pause._

_That thought was quickly trampled under the hooves of another, more overriding inclination._

_Although she had grown less violent as she had matured, Rika was still a person that did not do much touching and was certainly not one to be touched. This unspoken rule was something everyone who spent time with the Digimon Queen had come to learn, and it was a lesson one made sure to hastily ingrain. _

_Yet alcohol, being the omniscient liberalizer and remover of inhibitions, could potentially make an already forgetful individual act in a particularly careless manner._

_Without the slightest hesitation, Takato moved his hands from his sides and gently caressed Rika's fists. He slid his fingers over the young tamer's sharp knuckles and taught muscles, the fabric protruding from between her fingers brushing over his palms. A spark of surprise danced through the Hazard Tamer as he enveloped Rika's quivering fists; he had never realized how petite the ferocious tamers hands were. The primary communicators of the Ice Queen's fury easily fit in Takato's rough grasp. Her skin was pleasantly smooth, but the Hazard Tamer could still feel the years of calluses on her sharp knuckles._

_Takato's tentative embrace seemed to fill Rika's veins with marble. Her head ceased grinding into the young man's chest. Her frame stopped quaking with each shuddering breath._

_Nervousness leaked into Takato's chest. Regret cleaved it's way into his foggy brain. Had he gone too far? In his inebriated state, had he done the unthinkable?_

_Each passing second shattered the laws of time and space, what was only a tick of a watch's long hand took up far more than it's allotted space. Seconds dragged on into infinite for Takato; it was as if he had stumbled into some sort of event horizon._

_The dam in his chest burst with an incredible ferocity; regret and worry cascade throughout the young tamers body. In his clumsy attempt to provide comfort, he had only exacerbated Rika's state. _

_A wave of depression crashed into Takato, and as his shoulders slumped the tamer guiltily released Rika's taught fists._

_Yet as he began to slacken his grasp Takato felt some of the tension flow away from the Ice Queen's fists. Before he could move any further dainty fingers danced across the young man's palm and found the spaces in between his own digits. Rika hesitantly threaded her fingers amongst Takato's; and then with a greater degree of certainty she matched her palms to his._

_A very different sort of nervousness washed through the young man, purifying his body. Washed away were the feelings of depression and dread, they were supplanted with joy and giddiness. Takato's heart thundered in his chest, the muscle sending blood crashing through his tingling frame. Apprehensively the young tamer reciprocated Rika's behavior and wrapped his fingers around hers. As one the duo lowered their conjoined hands to their sides, Takato's ruffled shirt falling back into place. The Digimon Queen removed the crown of her head from Takato's chest, trails of moisture on the girl's rosy cheeks glinting in the street lights. Rika pressed her face gently into the young man's pectorals, hiding her stained visage from the Hazard Tamer._

_Cool air suddenly kissed Takato's palms as Rika abandoned his hands. Slender arms encircled the young man's waist, Rika pulling herself tightly up against Takato._

_Unsure of how exactly to react, the Hazard Tamer let his arms hand dumbly by his sides for a brief moment. Then, as if struck by inspiration, he enveloped the now softly sobbing redhead. Damp fabric picked at his chest as Rika's muffled tears saturated his shirt._

_The angry, distraught energy that kept Rika so tense evaporated as she sunk into Takato. Trickles of tears were replaced by streams, and sobs shuddered through the broken girl's frame._

_Yet none of this worried Takato._

_All that mattered to him was that Rika was here, safe in his arms. Where no one could hurt her._

_The emotional armor had been shed, the shield of distrust cast aside._

_The Hazard Tamer held the mighty Digimon Queen in his arms, shielding her from her earthly burdens. She did not utter a word as she wept; there was nothing to be said. Takato held his charge until she stopped shaking, until the unrestrained sobs were replaced with rough sniffles. _

_After a great measure of time Rika removed her face from the damp fabric of Takato's shirt and, refusing to look up at the young man, rested her cheek on his chest._

_"Thank you for walking me home…." A whisper danced from Rika's lips._

_The young tamer then sniffled and rubbed her nose on Takato's shirt, make-up ingraining itself in the cotton._

_"Of course." Rumbled the baker._

_He was not able to restrain the smile that surged from his heart onto his lips, giddiness sending his heart thumping yet again._

_This made Rika do something completely extraordinary._

_The Digimon Queen pulled herself tight up against Takato, nuzzled his chest and emitted an almost inaudible noise._

_Had anyone made the exact same utterance, Takato would have thought nothing of it. However, this was Rika Nonaka, the famed Ice Queen. Her cold demeanor was legendary; when she had laughed at one of Takato's jokes in their freshman year of High School the student body took it as a sign of the apocalypse. _

_The sound Rika had made was one of content. Of peace._

_It was not in any way manufactured; for the first time in too long it seemed that Rika might actually be…_

_Happy._

_Takato swung his head up towards the stars to ensure that they were indeed still there, and that a rift had not been torn in the universe. Never in his life had he seen Rika hug anyone without looking at least somewhat uncomfortable; a happy noise like the one she had just emitted was a sound he was certain the young girl was physically incapable of making. _

_Even the rare displays of public affection Rika engaged in with Ryo were awkward at best; for years Takato had been certain that Rika was incapable of touching other people with something other than a closed fist. _

_"I may have drank too much." Mused Rika._

_Takato clambered out of his mind and snapped back into reality, "Huh?"_

_"Your heart is beating really fast…." _

_"Ohh," Takato's stomach squirmed at this, "Is it? I mean yeah, it is. Yeah."_

_"Do I really scare you that much?"_

_If Takato had been walking, he would have tripped over himself._

_"Uhhhhhh…." The young man spluttered, casting around violently for a proper response, "I… ahhh… may have drank too much as well?"_

_"Idiot." Whispered Rika._

_END FLASHBACK_

A shudder passed through the frame of the airplane, a stiff gust of wind having shoved itself underneath the broad wings of the craft. As the body of the jetliner jerked upwards, the dozing passengers cocooned inside the soaring metal tube were treated to an abrupt awakening.

Still wallowing in the depths of the dream world, Takato felt his head leave the bulkhead he had been resting against.

What woke the Hazard Tamer up was his skull touching back down on the bulkhead.

Groaning softly, the young man rubbed the side of his head vigorously as his senses gradually came back online. While he was a well-practiced master in the art of napping, Takato had never been able to sleep comfortably on both airplanes and trains. He never felt well-rested and refreshed after attempting to find sleep in the confines of one of the stiff chairs mass-transport companies seemed to prefer.

"Oh. Right. Airplane." A moment of spatial confusion had thrown off Takato, his faculties still not entirely with him.

"Goggle head."

Rolling his head groggily to the right, Takato lazily swept his gaze over the only person who still goaded him for his choice of headwear.

Rika Nonaka held a small plastic cup delicately in her hands and drained the last of the tea it held.

"Takato, did you get a chance to read the official report on the Hawaii Digicon incident?"

The young man shook his head and groaned, "What do you mean by official report?"

"The United States Department of Homeland Security established an investigatory panel to look into what happened and try to deduce the reasoning and motives behind the attack. Their findings were published recently; an entire table in the foyer of the university bookstore was devoted to the book." Rika swirled the ice in her cup idly, apparently annoyed by how quickly the plastic chalice's contents had disappeared.

"Really? When did this happen?" While normally the words 'university' and 'bookstore' would have normally sent Takato back into a state of semi-consciousness, this was a topic that was of a great deal of interest to the tamer.

Sighing, Rika set her cup back down, "Last week goggle-brain."

"Ohhh…" Takata chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Do you even know where the bookstore is?" Rolling her eyes, the Digimon Queen cut off her boyfriend before he could reply, "Don't answer that question. I don't want to know. Anyways, the reason I was asking was because I was wondering what your thoughts were on the motive behind the attack."

Frowning, the young tamer furrowed his brow.

"According the media the attack was carried out as revenge for the D-Reaper catastrophe and was organized by anti-human digimon groups in the digital world. If I recall correctly the groups all had manifestos that echoed the same 'the strong will inherit the world' theme."

Restless as ever, Rika had turned her attention towards the straw that had come in the insignificant cup. The girl chewed on it absentmindedly; bored eyes scanning the Skymall magazine now open in front of her.

"Do you believe any of that?"

Takato rested his head against the cool glass of the airplane window, "Not really; the result doesn't look like the product of the proposed equation. While there are probably volatile emotions harbored by many denizens of the digital planes regarding the D-reaper, the organized and tactical actions taken by the digimon in Hawaii were not the product of blind rage. Someone or something took advantage of the digital populace's simmering resentment and manipulated it."

"The anti-human groups?"

"No… No, that doesn't seem likely. I mean first off, where did these groups come from? Why are we just now hearing about them? What has humanity done to deserve the ire of such a large part of the digital population?"

"Well the D-Reaper affected the entire know digital population in some way; entire planes were wiped from existence in the digital world. While we were able to defeat the D-Reaper, it was a beast of our own making."

Rika turned a violet eye towards Takato, "According the American's report, many digimon are of the opinion that humans owe them some sort of reparations. Working in concert with our partners we were able to put down the D-Reaper. While we fixed the problem we created, most digimon living in the digital world believe humans should do something about the apocalyptic levels of destruction the D-Reaper caused."

A pensive sigh rumbled deep with Takato's chest as he mused over what Rika had said.

"How would we do that?" He quipped, "Is it possible to re-build what was lost? I was under the impression that the digital world grew on its own."

The young man leaned across Rika, "Guilmon, didn't you say that the digital world was recovering quickly from the D-Reaper?"

"Well sort of," The crimson saurian furrowed his scaled brow, "The plant, the oceans, the rivers, that sort of stuff is re-appearing. But all of the stuff that was built by digimon… the… infrastructure! Yeah yeah the infrastructure is almost all gone. All of the towns, villages, bridges and harbors are either destroyed beyond repair or just simply aren't there anymore."

Renamon, seated next to Guilmon, placed a think, cream-colored finger in her book to mark her spot.

"What Guilmon is trying to say is that while the digital planes are recovering from what the D-Reaper wrought, the same cannot be said for the denizens of said planes. The settlements that survived are mostly nothing more than rubble. Every tribe, community and clan lost dozens of digimon to the D-Reaper. When I was sent back to the Digital World following the defeat of the D-Reaper, I came across a town that had once been home to thousands of digimon. All that remained of a once proud community was a few hundred digimon picking through fields of blackened rubble. Acres of bountiful farmland now lie fallow and abandoned; the farmers consumed by the D-Reaper. Fisheries that once fed dozens of villages are now dormant; the Coelamon that used to fill the nets now nothing but errant data."

The kitsune paused, picked a bookmark out of the bag at her feet, and used it to replace her finger.

"The D-Reaper was not all-consuming; many communities were spared from it's unbiased destruction. Yet hundreds of thousands of digimon are now bereft of shelter, unable to find food and incapable of remedying their situation. Hope is a scarcely uttered word in the digital planes these days. In the weeks following the defeat of the D-Reaper many of the affected Digimon hoped that some aid might come from humanity; yet all they have received is silence. In the eyes of much of the digital populace the D-Reaper was the creation of humans, and while the program broke free of its shackles, humanity still bore a degree of blame for the chaos wrought by their monster."

Silence met Renamon's statement, the bleak portrait painted by the digimon choking damming any streams of consciousness anyone might have been constructing.

"I… had no idea." Uttered Rika after several minutes, her eyes still glazed over in thought.

"I apologize for my naivety, I admit that I know little about the current situation and in no way do I mean to cause offense…" Rumiko Nonaka, seated next to Renamon in the seat closest to the window, leaned forward to address the group.

"But if I remember correctly, retrieving all of you from the digital world was a monolithic undertaking. Has travelling to and returning from the digital world gotten any easier in the past few years?"

Her hawk-yellow irises expanded as Renamon delivered a none-to-soft kick to Guilmon, the crimson reptile's mouth half open and ears perked up in excitement.

"No. No, it has not." Snapped the fox digimon, the snarl lacing her words quickly closing Guilmon's maw, "In fact no one is still quite sure how we travelled from the physical world to the digital plane."

For years Takato, Henry, Rika and their partners had kept the portal to the digital world Takato had found under Guilmon's shed in the park a secret. Once the tamers had been reunited with their partners they decided to abstain from using the portal. At the time Takato had wanted to return to the digital world, but after a severe lambasting from Henry and a detailed description of dismemberment from Rika the Hazard Tamer agreed that the portal was not something to be used casually.

Rumiko, ever oblivious, furrowed her brow and leaned back into her seat.

Technically Renamon was telling the truth; the portal under Guilmon's shed was quite small. Nothing larger than a Rookie digimon could fit through; how Guardramon was able to ram himself through the narrow gateway was a mystery. Furthermore, the portal was quite finicky. It 'opened' at random times, and then it usually only allowed one-way travel.

"So how would humans help rebuild the digital world?" Piped up Rumiko, "There must be more to the situation than that."

"Most of the Digimon in the digital world, or at least the denizens that I spoke with, understand that even if they wanted to, the human governments could not help in any significant way." Guilmon took his turn to speak, warily eyeing the kitsune next to him as he did so.

"Some digimon just… choose not to understand. I guess it's pretty easy to blame someone that isn't there, it's not like you guys can say nor do anything about it."

"Correct." Affirmed Renamon, "What is particularly worrisome is that this illogical determination of guilt has crept into every vestige of some communities. Humanity, once an arbitrary, relatively unknown entity, is now the subject of an ever-increasing level of vitriol. The shiftless, idle, lazy and corrupt have taken to convicting mankind in absentia of being the source of all of their woes, regardless of whether or not humans had anything to do with the matter. The thieves, warlords and malcontents of the digital world, those who had previously subsisted on the hard work of others now have no farms to plunder, no towns to threaten."

"That sounds depressingly familiar." Interrupted Takato, a deep frown creasing his complexion.

"Hold on…" Rika stiffly held up a hand, her tone skeptical.

"So Renamon, correct me if I'm interpreting this incorrectly, but are you saying you think these attacks were the work of a bunch of digital thugs? Some brain-dead warlords and their cronies?! There's something missing, it's never that simple."

Takato nodded, speaking before Renamon could respond.

"Who's playing the role of malevolent overlord?"

Her ears twitching in non-directional annoyance, the corners of the kitsune digimon's mouth turned downwards.

"That's where Guilmon and I are stuck. We have absolutely no idea."


	25. Chapter 25

**It's one in the morning and I've had a beer. Or three. In the past thirty minutes. Sorry about taking so long with updates to the story, you know I love you guys. Yay. New chapter. Yayyyyy. I did a victory Bernie around my garage just to celebrate my finishing the latest chapter. Really, thank you for your everlasting patience and endless enthusiasm, reading the reviews and even looking at the viewer statistics following each new chapter is incredibly heartwarming. THANKS FOR READING, HAVE FUN STORMING THE CASTLE. DROP DOWN MENUS FOR STORY UPLOADING ARE HARD TO USE WHILE INEBRIATED.**

"May I ask why we're bringing a tree inside?"

From behind a dense barrier of branches and pine needles Luke let out a bark of laughter, "It's another Christmas tradition."

Rose furrowed her brow as her tamer and his father shuffled past her, "It's a Christmas tradition to bring even more plants inside?"

"Well we're going to put strings of lights on it and hang shiny baubles from the branches." Luke tilted the Douglas Fir up as his father guided the trunk into a pedestal.

"Ohhh I see, so this is the... the Christmas tree that the Sovereign of the North places gifts underneath?"

"You could say that." Chirped Luke's mother from behind the Renamon; waiting with vacuum cleaner in hand to absorb the hundreds of needles shed by the evergreen as it had been manhandled into the living room.

"Hey honey," Interrupted Mr. Ekelstone from his position beneath the tree, "Could you make sure the tree is straight?"

Brushing by the kitsune, the petite woman had her son and husband yank the tree around for a solid minute until she was satisfied.

"That's always fun." Grunted the balding Mr. Ekelstone as he slowly got to his feet.

"Oh totally." Luke brushed pine needles out his hair as he emerged from within the depths of the evergreen.

Looking over at his digimon, the downturned corners and slightly hunched shoulders told the young tamer all be needed.

"Sarcasm."

Rose's ears immediately perked up, "I see."

"Really?"

The kitsune's jaw loosened but before she could speak a whirring noise filled the air. Hackles springing to life, the digimon spun in place and rapidly gathered her tail in her arms. The maker of the offending noise and the current subject of a suspicious glare was the vacuum cleaner that Luke's mother had just turned on. Two weeks ago Rose, in an attempt to help out around the house, was learning how to use the vacuum cleaner and accidentally ran over her tail. The machine, much to Rose's surprise and horror, began to consumer her tail. Upon bounding upstairs to determine the source of a rather unusual yowl, Luke had found his digimon, fur standing on end, snarling at an innocently humming vacuum cleaner.

Smirking as his mother apologized to the startled kitsune, Luke chided his partner.

"It's more afraid of you than you are of it Rose."

The digimon stopped daintily smoothing out her ruffled fur just long enough to toss a venom-laced glare in his direction.

"You're hilarious." Hissed the Renamon.

The young man chuckled, but his laughter was cut short as a grimace replaced his smile. Bending at the waist, Luke groaned softly.

"Alright laughing still hurts..." Murmured the tamer, "I like the sarcasm though."

"You alright kid?" Asked Mr. Ekelstone.

Straightening his spine, Luke nodded stiffly as the stifling, aching pain slowly receded. "I'll live. Should have taken it easier with the tree though."

The balding man released a weighty sigh, indicating that he shared his son's sentiment.

"Just take it easy." Proffered the aging engineer, unsure of what else to say.

Having returned the vacuum to the hall closet, Luke's mother re-appeared. Worry lines deepened on the woman's already permanently stressed features as as soon as she saw Luke's hunched shoulders and tense visage.

"Did you overdo it again?" fretted the matriarch as she picked at her offspring's clothing, looking for spots of blood that signified broken stitches.

"A bit. I'm fine though." Frustration tinged the young man's tone as he mindlessly picked at the bandages that covered his forearm.

By now Luke was used to his mother's worrisome nagging; she meant well and as a mother she had every right to worry. What bothered the tamer was how constricting his injuries were. It frustrated him to end that once-simple tasks now required a meticulous and delicate approach. Minor, otherwise redundant exertions were capable of sending searing bouts of pain lancing through the young man's frame. This frustrated Luke to no end.

Gingerly taking a seat on one of the couches in the room, Luke felt a familiar emotion drift through his mental link with Rose. She was, as usual, concerned and worried about her tamer. With a mental snarl Luke drowned her wisps of concern in waves of smoldering, rancorous indifference. Rose's gaze gently prodded the young tamer as she attempted to form some sort of link, verbal or non-verbal, with her tamer. He was having none of it, and as he stiffly stood up and moved to help wrap lights around the tree Luke made a point of avoiding making eye contact with his digimon. There was no point in doing anything besides letting his rage boil itself away as far as he was concerned. The emotions he was feeling were immature and Sisyphean; Luke knew his condition could not be changed through sheer force of will or by kind words.

The tree was decorated in short order and the elder Ekelstones, along with their offspring and his digimon, retired to the family room. Mr. and Mrs. Ekelstone buried themselves in the current day's newspaper, idly browsing through the sections they had previously forgone. Leafing through an overflowing binder, Luke stopped on a section labeled "Schubert Motorsports - 24 Hours of Dubai" and, drawing a pen out of a pocket in the binder, began meticulously analyzing the report. The dense, technical writing was the elixir the tamer needed; as he absorbed each paragraph he felt a certain measure of 'holiday cheer' return. The clicking of claws on hardwood signaled Rose's return; the kitsune had whispered upstairs when everyone had migrated from one room to another. In her right paw she held a book; it was not until she sat down in a high-backed armchair on the far side of the room was Luke able to recognize the cover.

"Rose..." Sighed the young man, a smile tugging at his lips, "That's quite the book you've got there."

"It is, isn't it." The kitsune turned over a worn copy of Machiavelli's The Prince in her paws before opening it to a previously marked page.

"So... What do you think?"

The snow-white tip led the rest of Rose's elegant tail in a lazy wave as the digimon mused to herself.

"Out of curiosity I asked your father what books he had about human society and culture. This was the first book he handed me."

"Of course it is." Snorted Luke, eyes dancing with amusement.

Rose raised an inquisitive eyebrow, but Luke neglected to elaborate and forged onward.

"What do you think of the scheming of the princes?"

Tossing a chastening scowl at her tamer, the kitsune continued where she had left off.

"It is a different perspective on society, one far removed from what I am used to. Renamon are not the most societally extroverted of digimon. While some clans have developed relationships with other digimon, other clans are…. Aggressively xenophobic."

Rose murmured the last portion of the sentence as if it were an admission of guilt.

Perplexed by the weight his partner had attached to the words, Luke opened his mouth before he could form a potential hypothesis.

"I don't mean to pry…."

"Then don't." Rose cut off her tamer before he could finish posing his question.

The venom in her curt response told the young man all he needed to know. 'Aggressive xenophobia' was in all likelihood a polite way of saying some of the Renamon clans were more akin to a sneering imperialist than a benign monk when it came to dealings with other digimon.

Furthermore, it sounded like Rose was intimately familiar with the foreign policies of the clans.

This was one of only a handful of times Rose had mentioned her previous life. While both of them had shared little in regards to their personal history, Luke could only remember a handful of occasions when Rose had brought up her family and clan. Perhaps it was finally time for him to ask her about her history. The young man made a tentative mental note to do so later on in a more private setting. For the time being Luke knew to not pursue the topic at hand any further, as it had strayed into questionable territory.

"My apologies."

Several hours later Luke's parents retired and after the usual smattering of tidings, the duo found themselves alone.

Ever since Rose's... Outburst at the hospital things had been been tense in between the digimon and her tamer. Luke had made a point of not talking about what had happened and as such there had not been any more intimate contact between the pair. Rose had even taken to sleeping in the guest bedroom, which was now her bedroom as far as the Ekelstones were concerned. This, of course, meant that there was a considerable amount of tension in between Luke and Rose.

As per his modus operandi, Luke was attempting to just ignore the issue until it went away but at the moment the tamer's universal solution seemed to only be extenuating the symptoms of the problem. Even as he absentmindedly glanced over track notes he could feel his digimon's pulsating presence.

Thanks to their mental link it was painfully obvious to Luke that they were trying their hardest to ignore each other and were failing miserably at doing so. Normally they were able to operate at sustainable levels without one of them breaking down but Luke had a feeling that tonight he might not be so lucky. As one their heart rates steadily increased; Luke found himself just staring at the page in front of him.

As far as he could tell Rose was barely able to contain herself as well, her mind was throbbing with energy. Mental klaxons sounded in the tamer's own mind as electric emotions crackled through his aching frame. Usually either Rose or Luke would get up and leave before the tension became too much to bear but on this particular evening things were happening far too quickly.

Luke sighed mentally and entrenched himself in preparation for the onslaught he knew was coming. A sinister thought bubbled it's way to the forefront of his consciousness: if he was to assert his dominance, he would have to ensure that Rose broke first.

Glancing up from his notes, Luke saw that the tip of his partner's tail was twitching rather vigorously. Furthermore, she had not turned a page in her book ever since his parents had left. In spite of himself Luke grinned.

He was winning.

The beast that was his manhood and male mind was becoming increasingly restless, the animal unhappy with it's current confines. Luke wanted to act, to do something, anything. The beast was hungry. But the tamer knew that if he was patient, his prey would come to him. The beast knew this, and was trying it's best to be patient. After all, the thrill was in the hunt. The prey was only an ancillary complement.

Rose gasped, a short intake of breath breaking the silence and sending the current situation over the edge.

"You're such a damnable asshole." Muttered the digimon in a matter-of-fact tone.

Bingo.

"Do be quiet." Growled Luke as his entire body and mind roared in excitement.

"What?! You... You..." Rose bristled at her tamer's off-handed command, "Since when were you in any position to give me orders."

"I'm your tamer." Responded Luke in a monotone, still looking down at the tables before him.

"So?" Hissed the infuriated Renamon.

"So?' That's rather pathetic. Is that the best comeback you can manage?"

Rose closed her book with trembling paws and placed it on the table next to her, mouth moving as silent curses spewed forth. "How... How... By the Sovereigns you are absolutely insufferable!"

"I am now?" Keeping a grin off of his face was proving to be difficult for the young man.

As sinister as it was, Luke found that tearing down his digimon's carefully-maintained composure was something he took great delight in.

"I despise you." Sighed the digimon as she buried her face in her hands, desperately trying to maintain herself.

"No you don't."

In the outer edges of his vision Luke saw his kitsune stand up and tug her gauntlets off. Warm leather suddenly smacked the young man in the face, and as he looked up Luke saw a rather cross-looking Renamon bearing down on him.

Closing the binder and setting it on the floor in front of him, Luke dragged his gaze up his digimon's lithe frame. Rose stood before him, hips cocked and arms crossed. Her narrowed eyes communicated veiled disdain, but the kitsune's swaying tail told a different story.

"I still have no idea why you chose me to be your partner." Mused Luke innocently.

Rose's eyes flashed.

"Was that an attempt at flattery by a man who doesn't even know the meaning of the word?"

"I suppose. I still am mystified by your choice though."

Rose's shoulders lost their rigidity, and despite her disdainful expression Luke saw hints of wry amusement dancing in the kitsune's eyes.

"My reasons are my own."

"Well I was under the impression you utterly despised so I figured I would ask…."

It took nearly every ounce of Luke's strength and willpower to maintain his stoic facade. Something about ribbing his normally dour and serious partner was incredibly amusing.

Fingers involuntarily balled into fists born of frustration, Rose spluttered at her tamer.

"You… just…. By the Sovereigns…. Gahhh…." Beneath silky fur the Renamon's sculpted abdominals tightened as she struggled to find the words to properly express herself.

Trying desperately to maintain the semi-scowl he was currently wearing, Luke bit the inside of his lip in an attempt to delay the grin threating to jump onto his visage. Although Rose had expanded her social breadth to extended conversations, she was still a prime example of an atypical Renamon at nearly all hours of the day. Perennially dour and serious, the kitsune had only recently begun to facilitate conversations with her tamer's closest relations. This had taken a great degree of doing on Luke's part; subliminally encouraging his digimon to move beyond cryptic responses had tried the young man's patience.

Yet what Luke had originally had assumed to be a combination of aloofness and deeply ingrained societal norms turned out to be something completely different. Following a particularly strenuous encounter with a wild digimon, Luke and Rose were tasked with explaining their actions to the tamer-digimon licensing class they were in at WSU. Luke ended up orating the entire battle to the class while Rose, tail tucked up against her legs and ears pressed against her skull, stared determinately at a whiteboard pen on the other side of the room.

As the pair returned to their seats, the blinding rays of revelation pierced the grey clouds of annoyance in Luke's mind. His partner was not aloof, overtly proud or spitefully regal.

She was simply shy.

Her overarching, awkward shyness was why Luke took particular delight in riling up his partner. It was common knowledge that needling a Renamon was not the safest of ventures; one was better off taking up bear cub kidnapping for a hobby. Although Luke sinisterly enjoyed watching his digimon become increasingly frustrated as he prodded at her, it was one of the surefire methods the tamer knew of for drawing the kitsune completely out of her shell.

"You frustrate me to absolutely no end…." Snarled the kitsune.

The provocation was by no means one-sided; Rose toyed with her tamer in equal measure. While a casual observer might wonder why neither party took offense to the actions of the opposite, Luke and Rose both knew that their fiery exchanges usually carried little weight.

One quirk that both fascinated and amused Rose to no end was her tamer's blindingly fast and unfathomably random thought process. Luke was prone to wandering off on various mental tangents all while concentrating on the task at hand. Although the young man was capable of regulating himself to some degree, Rose often bore direct witness to her partner's aimless musings. Like most internal dialogue, these thoughts were usually personal and not fit for the outside world. More often than not they were completely unrelated to the situation at hand.

"Is your fur more… golden than usual?"

At any given time Luke maintained a mental rail yard, with around a dozen trains of thought simultaneously. Like a persistently over-clocked computer, the tamer's brain was buzzing with activity from dawn till dusk. It just so happened that a stray thought had emerged from one of the currently running tasks and had made it past the young man's brain-to-mouth filter. Unfortunately for Luke, his most private of musings had the greatest proclivity for escaping.

Rose blinked in surprise as Luke kicked himself. The tension sloughed off of her face and her shoulders dropped. The tirade welling in her chest seemed to escape from her now slackened maw, leaving the Renamon speechless.

_Aaaand now I have to run with it,_ groused Luke internally.

Gingerly lifting a hand to rub the back of his neck, the tamer fumbled about for something to say.

Rose's fur did indeed look different; the shade was removed from the normal soft yellow. A deeper golden-orange had crept into her coat, and it was the first time Luke had taken notice. His partner was an absolutely exceptional being; a flawless combination of taught, lean musculature and confident femininity. Physical beauty was a quality Rose seemed to maintain effortlessly, her oriental mystique drawing blatant stares wherever she went.

For the first few months of their partnership it the kitsune did give the impression that she had no need to devote any energy to personal appearance. Only after awkwardly asking the Renamon if she wanted to take part in his daily exercise routine did it become clear to Luke that Rose took her physical fitness quite seriously. Her studious grooming habits were another matter entirely, as the young man had accidently discovered.

Never one to notice a new outfit or new makeup color on previous girlfriends, Luke often found himself on the receiving end of what appeared to be baseless scorn. Despite concerted efforts to increase his diligence, the timeliness of his observations still needed work.

The young man cringed, assuming that this change was something he was supposed to have noticed and commented on some time ago.

_Then again, it's not like we're dating or anything… Ah hell I'm in trouble._

"I… ahhhhmmm…. You just look… different and…." Luke tripped over his words, "Anddd… I… it looks good. Your coat does."

Making a mental note to repeatedly bash his skull against a hard surface later, the young tamer grinned sheepishly at his partner.

Warmth laced into Luke's cheeks, bringing with it a very unwanted blush. Raising a suspicious eyebrow, Rose still seemed unable to find her tongue.

Confusion tumbled from the Renamon across their mental link. To Luke's surprise mixed in amongst the confusion were hints of desperately concealed… embarrassment?

Compliments were not something Luke neither gave nor received well, especially when it came to women. His brain usually ceased to function about halfway through vocalizing his carefully constructed observations, forcing the young man to clumsily abandon the proverbial sinking ship. Words tended to lose their meaning, the young man's voluminous lexicon suddenly filled with blank pages.

Further complicating matters was the issue of Luke's heart rate. The traditionally calm muscle was now pulsating vigorously, it thick walls pounding against the tamer's rib cage. Blood coursed through veins at blinding speeds, the drastic increase in flow only serving to further debilitate the young man.

"It's my winter coat…" Rose spoke slowly, appearing to be slightly befuddled, "I suppose it is more…. Golden in hue, isn't it. I suppose you haven't seen my winter coat before, have you…"

Without warning Rose's ebony gaze sharpened and met her tamer; it was as if some sort of monumental realization had suddenly fomented inside the kitsune's brain.

"Was that a… compliment?"

Luke could feel his partner's obsidian glare tear through his body, searching for answers. Incapable of producing a cognizant response, the young man bit his lower lip none too gently.

"Possibly." Muttered the tamer.

Luke's admission escaped out into an awkward silence. Rose stood, statue-like, her laser-like focus centered wholly on the young man. Still unable to properly vocalize anything beyond a nervous groan, Luke fell back on attempting to meet his Renamon's all-consuming glare. Failing at this miserably, the tamer loosened his jaw in an attempt to possibly say something.

Yet before another breath could escape the young man's lungs Rose emerged from his stoic state. Gracefully bending at her waist, the digimon daintily picked her gauntlets up off of the floor. Turning on her heels, the curvaceous fox ninja sauntered into the kitchen and down the hallway. With a roll of her hips Rose disappeared around the corner, leaving her partner with his jaw hanging loosely on its hinges.

Slowly collecting himself, Luke unleashed a groan from deep with his chest as his heart rate descended back to normal levels. He flopped backward into the folds of the couch, exhaling as he did so. Tension leaked from Luke's body as he decompressed and gathered his thoughts, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

"What the hell…"

Several hours later Luke shuffled his way upstairs, treading carefully on each step so as not to wake the other occupants of the house. The gleaming hour hand on the watch attached to the tamer's wrist was well past its uppermost position. Vision blurry and un-focused, Luke stumbled into the bathroom that lay across from his room and clumsily went through his nighttime maintenance routine.

Toweling his face off, the young man released a low sigh as he nudged off the ambient light that lit his bathroom. Bare feet scrubbed across carpet as the exhausted digimon tamer bumped the door to his bedroom open and staggered inside. Closing the door behind himself with his left foot, Luke neglected to illuminate his room; instead choosing to rely on familiarity. Gingerly tugging his t-shirt off over his head, the young man grumbled as the cotton caught on stiffer bandage fibers.

A pair of gym shorts replaced the tamer's jeans; before tossing the denim across the room Luke fished his phone out of a pocket. Setting the device on his nightstand, the young man hesitated.

It had crossed his mind while he had been brushing his teeth.

Although it was not a new thought, it had flitted across the tamer's consciousness with ever-increasing frequency.

Initially muffled by pride, the seed have nevertheless been planted. Luke knew he had to act, had to say something.

She was his partner after all.

A deep sigh sent warm breath tumbling down Luke's bare chest.

"Fine."

Sloppily the tamer turned his back on the beckoning embrace of his poorly-made bed. The bedroom door was silently flung open again. Naked feet shuffled across carpet without so much as a whisper; Luke's teenage years had taught him how to move around his parent's home in the most silent manner possible.

Arriving at his destination, Luke pushed against the varnished pine door before him. The foot of the door caught on the carpet as it swung open.

Rose's soft voice drifted out of the darkness. "Yes?"

Unsurprised by his partner's immediate awareness of his actions, Luke simply rubbed the back of his neck. He had given up on trying to sneak up on his digimon long ago; the fox ninja was too well attuned to her environment.

"Do you… erm… have a second?"

The tamer's request hung awkwardly in the air for a moment. "Are you asking if I have time to speak with you?"

"Yes."

"In that case, I do." A rustling of sheets and a shift in murky outlines indicated to Luke that his Renamon was sitting amongst a throne of fabric on the bed; he did not need to be able to see properly to know that her obsidian eyes were regarding him carefully.

Ducking into Spartan room, the young man closed the wooden door behind him with a soft click. Taking a moment to compose himself, Luke found himself more grateful for his digimon's stoic demeanor than usual. She was hardly ever one to pry, choosing to spend more time listening than she did speaking. He was having a difficult time matching up his thoughts to construct coherent utterances, and Luke was glad that the persistent questioning that often accompanied scenarios like this had been replaced by still air.

"I apologize if this comes out as jumbled and disjointed… I… ahhh… oh fuck it." Luke groaned, "I'm sorry Rose. I've been a dick to you recently. As to why I have no idea, but I am sorry. I've been so… angry lately. Every little thing seems to make my blood boil, and it takes my entire wherewithal to not tear apart whatever it is that's in front of me. You've dealt with my… explosions without batting an eye and… I… Just…"

Growling in frustration, Luke tersely ran his hands through his curls as rage burbled in his gut.

"I know why." Rose almost sounded like she was admonishing a child; Luke's head snapped up as he felt his surging anger being replaced with inquisitive confusion.

"You hate to lose; your drive to better than everyone else around can absolutely consume you sometimes. In your mind, you lost that fight at the farm. You think that you failed, completely and utterly."

The truth carried by Rose's bold-faced admonishments robbed Luke of breath, rendering him incapable of responding.

"We made some enormous mistakes that night, and we nearly paid for it with our lives. But we won. Despite what you may thing, WE won that battle. It was not just ME, it was the product of TEAMWORK." The vitriol lacing the Renamon's every word increased as she went on.

"Your problem is that you refuse to accept anything less than absolute perfection from yourself. That's so incredibly stupid that I won't even bother going into the matter; you need to get the FUCK over yourself. One of the reasons that I chose you as my tamer was that in Hawai'i, you KNEW that you would beat that Bealzulmon. I have NEVER seen that kind of drive in any being before. Now I've learned that I need to shape your ego to match your drive."

Words escaped the young tamer. It was nearly impossible for him to process what his partner had just presented to him.

"And here I was thinking all along that you had just picked me because of my astonishingly chiseled features and good looks."

Well, most words escaped him.

A pillow bounced off of Luke's face, a grin splitting the young man's face in two.

"Well hey, in my defense I thought it wouldn't be so bad to have such an eye-catching digimon as my partner."

This earned the tamer another pillow to the face.

"You're so damn lucky boy."

"Oh hush, you know we would be nothing without each other."

"Don't remind me."


End file.
